Chirp. Chirp. Chirp.
That's right. We got the "middle of the night" reminder! There's nothing like a groggy search for a 9V battery at 3:00 a.m.!
With fresh batteries installed, we'll be heading to Big Bend later this morning. And, yes, we're taking the moose. That's the answer to one of the most common questions around the park this week. It seems most folks here make Big Bend a big day trip. And, we're talking BIG day trip! Most do the 300-plus mile round trip just once during their stay. So, although it's a very full day, it hardly seems worth the trouble of packing up the RV. But, we're looking forward to doing some hiking and exploring. And, heck, we have the time. We're going to take it! So, we're going in the coach.
Paul was in the laundry yesterday when another camper asked if we had been to Big Bend. He explained that we were heading out today. And, yes, we were taking the motorhome. The fellow camper replied that he thought the parks down there were too expensive. So, he was planning to make three day trips from here.
To each his own!
As he put the laundry away, Paul started to do the math.
If you stay at this park a week, the nightly rate is $29. If you spend three nights at the closest RV park to Big Bend, it's $27 a night. So, that's a wash.
It's 84 miles between the two RV parks. We paid $3.79 (gasp!) for diesel the other day. And, our moose gets about 9 mpg. So, our 168-mile round-trip will cost us 19 gallons of fuel valued at $72.
Much more of this fancy math is going to depress me!
But, what about the day tripper? Make that 168-mile trip three times and that's another 504 miles on your odometer. Let's assume you're driving a toad that gets 25 mpg using gas, for which we paid $3.59 (gasp!) a gallon here in Alpine. What will those three long days of driving cost you? You guessed it: $72!
And that money just gets everybody to Big Bend National Park! How much time and money you can spend driving around that 1,250 square-mile expanse is anybody's guess.
So, in terms of cash, it's pretty much a wash. But, with your RV parked just outside of this big national park, the daytripper would save about four hours a day. Two extra days of driving means at least eight extra hours.
What will we do with our "extra" eight hours at Big Bend? Stay tuned!
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7 comments:
Have you thought of staying IN the park? The dry campground at Rio Grande Village is very appealing, has great hiking from the campground and is only $14/night (half price if you have a senior pass). The FHU campground there (an asphalt parking lot) is $29.
I would probably be inclined to do what you are doing, or, as Laurie suggests, stay in the park. :)
I like your post. It makes sense and reminds us to think things thru.
Sure, sometimes you gotta do things by impulse, but this is a "can't see the forest for the trees" moment.
Yer post caused an extraordinary extraction of extraneous extras on my part tryin' to foller yer math, but by the time I got it near close to figured out Laurie and Odel had posted their comment, which made a whole lot of cents.
I.M.
Me and Nilda's blog
even staying NEAR the park means a lot of driving. I can't imagine staying further away and driving in for the day. we stayed at Big Bend Motor Inn. Every day we were there we put about 100 miles on the truck, just driving to where we wanted to hike, etc. Still, its such a beautifu area, its worth it!
I am lost already..are you taking Bullwinkle or just Rocky?..I am going to have to go back and re-read!
It's like the questions we get from people about full timing and cost of diesel and how expensive it's going to be. Well, if we stay where we are and want to see all of the places we plan to go to with our motor home, we'd likely have to fly to get to them to begin with, then we'd have to rent a car, get a hotel room .... and on and on. So, in the end, the cost of driving the motor home from one point to another and seeing sights along the way just might be less expensive. Do the math is right.
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