Camping in this economy

Mik68, The Canadian portion might be the expensive part as their fuel is considerable more and on the west coast everything is more money. Don't get me wrong Canada offers a lot more uncluttered and unrestricted areas for adventure.
We've never done the Vancouver or la portion but did Michigan to Seattle back to Michigan and I am quite sure we didn't use up that much money. We took about 5 months. Use RVreviews.com to find campsites that are reasonable and have good ratings.

We are planning a mother of a trip, starting in LA & going to every corner of your country, across to Florida up to Maine, across to Vancouver & back to LA with a lot of weaving in-between over 6 months. Towing a 28foot TT with probably a 7/8 seater van (not purchased) & have allowed $1000 a week for fuel, food(we eat health conscious - not take out) & campsites. Does this seem reasonable? It's an open question with many variables I know but from Australia so have no idea!
This is excluding sight seeing & entry fee to attractions.

noe-place wrote:
We will take a "major" long trip if gas is around $3.50 and if it's a dime or so higher, we'll cut back on the distance.

So you are saying if you would do a 5000 mile trip ok but if gas goes up a dime you cut back?

5000 mile @ 10 miles per gallon = 500 gallons at a dime more = 500 *.10 = 50 bucks !

Wow!

mleekamp wrote:
We booked a trip to Fort Wilderness for June 8-14....our first with our TT. Thing is, I was notified I will be laid off the week after. Hmmm...So, instead of driving back, we booked another week at Fort Pickens in FL. From there, who knows? Point is, we now are in no hurry to come home....our girls will love it. We will already have spent the money on the fuel to get there....might as well stay awhile!!!!!!!!

Be sure to visit the national naval aviation museum at NAS Pensacola. The Blue Angles are not doing air show but they are still practicing there.

I am half timing it and this year I have planned my activities so that I will get in about the same number of nights but will probably cut the miles by a third. Gas is certainly not cheap but I am doing my best to work around it. I guess the "across the country" trip isn't in the works this year but maybe when DW retires. I also plan to dust off one of the tents and try a little motorcycle touring and camping for a change.

We will take a "major" long trip if gas is around $3.50 and if it's a dime or so higher, we'll cut back on the distance.

Jloucks wrote:
The economy has not hit us as hard as diesel gas prices! We typically only do one/two short range trip (6 or less hours one way) per year. Back 8 years ago, we would do 3 or 4 medium and long range trips... and 10+ hours was not a big deal.

We fly now if the destination is over 10 hours away.

Back in May 2008 I paid $5.00 for Diesel and was happy to get it for $4.80!
I put on 15,000 on one of our "little" trips across the US that year and was in most states. I am more than happy that over the course of 5 years the prices are still lower!

Camping is NOT cheap if you count the cost of the RV/TT/whatever. Depending on THAT cost makes camping a bargain or not.

My $3K pop up I had for 3 years was paid for. No storage costs. Got about 15 mpg average with the CRV and then the Tacoma. We spent a week at a time in Florida SP's for less than $600 for 3 people, including gas. Otherwise we couldn't have gone at all. Such memories!

MY HTT that I just had to sell because of roof leak was brand new. Not such a good deal considering I paid about $8K for it over 3 years. Still no storage costs and we made memories there too.

Now I have a 22 year old Class C. It is paid for and gets about 8mpg running the AC. Hopefully we'll still be making memories....

The economy has not hit us as hard as diesel gas prices! We typically only do one/two short range trip (6 or less hours one way) per year. Back 8 years ago, we would do 3 or 4 medium and long range trips... and 10+ hours was not a big deal.

We fly now if the destination is over 10 hours away.

Here's a little gem from Forbes on fuel,
The good news for motorists is that gasoline prices are expected to be more affordable in the coming months than they were during the two preceding summers. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) just released Short Term Energy Outlook, retail gas prices are expected to average $3.63 a gallon during this summer’s driving season. This figure is slightly below the $3.69 figure recorded last year and $3.71 in summer of 2011, and is only slightly higher than the national average of $3.61 a gallon as of April 8.

This sunny forecast is largely based on an expected decline in crude oil prices combined with higher gasoline inventory levels and a continuing drop in demand due to increased small-car sales and other factors. The EIA predicts the price of Brent crude oil (a benchmark that’s tied to wholesale gasoline costs in the U.S.), will average $107.50 per barrel this summer, which would be around $1.50 less than it was during the same period in 2012.