30 years of Practicing Minimalism

[Tybee]

Alan, that sounds like a dream to me, a really nice one right now! I can't even get my husband to agree to buying a travel trailer, and since he's the one who would have to drive it, I have to respect that.

But boy, I am envious of your idyll.

My grandparents were from Nebraska, as are my husband's, and I'd love to see some of those sites for genealogical research. We were both born very far from Nebraska so it was weird to find we had this in common, all these places.

I had a great great uncle killed by the Sioux in South Dakota.

[Teacher Terry]

Tybee, my advice is rent one and take a trip. Many people find out that they don’t like it.

[Tybee]

That is good advice--I checked into the one near us and it did not allow dogs, however.

[catherine]

We will go by car someday. We sold ours because the cost of gas and RV sites were expensive. Renting is very expensive. 4 years ago to park in Yellowstone it was 55/night and grand Tetons was 75. That’s for basically a parking spot close to your neighbor with no picnic table. It was nice not to have to drive through the park every day to get to your hotel. We went 4K miles, spent 6k with me cooking all the meals for a month. 2 years ago we took the car, 3 dogs and went 6k miles for a month and spent 4K staying in motels and eating most meals out.

Maybe because I've never been camping or RVing but that does sound expensive to me and not worth the hassle of driving such a big gas-guzzling vehicle. As you said, if you drive in a fuel-efficient car the gas savings would definitely make up the price difference to get yourself into a Class B hotel near the park site. I'm not clear from your post, TT--did you prefer being in the park in the RV, or driving in a car and staying at the motels outside the park?

I guess if I were driving a big RV, it wouldn't be bad if you're on interstates outside of major cities. We had a conversion van for a while and even that was a total nightmare navigating city streets. I hated that thing.

[Simplemind]

TT it never ceases to amaze me how much we are alike. I would have written the exact same thing.

[Teacher Terry]

The motor home got 9 miles per gallon. When we got to the park we had to rent a car because it’s too big to drive around the park. It was nice to stay in the park because it was less driving. When we took the car to Yosemite it probably took us a hour each way to get to our motel. We couldn’t tow a car because not all can be towed. Or we could buy a trailer for 4K to put the car on and then gas mileage is worse and the driver has a longer vehicle to pull. A motel room is bigger than the 27 foot since it’s only 162 sq ft. So having the motor home was more expensive and less comfortable. Simple, do you own one now or in the past?

[happystuff]

When the kids were younger, we actually went 1/2 way across the country in a van. It worked out really well and I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't mind van living for a while.

Then my next thought was the Prius woman... I think her name was Sue? Van, yes. Prius, I don't think so. Or maybe just one trip to try it out. lol.

[Tybee]

Oh, I forgot the Prius woman. I think one of my top goals in life is not​ to become the Prius woman.

[Alan]

We're in Keystone SD now, 1300 miles from home and we'll be here for the next 10 days. I know some people don't enjoy this mode of travel but I personally believe being a nomad is one of life's greatest adventures.

[iris lilies]

We're in Keystone SD now, 1300 miles from home and we'll be here for the next 10 days. I know some people don't enjoy this mode of travel but I personally believe being a nomad is one of life's greatest adventures.

That is a nice rig.