Cost of Gasoline and Cost of Our Trip - part 1

We've been back for a few days now and we're still not recovered from the jetlag.

I think that if it were just up to Margreet and I, we would have been over it already. Unfortunately, Noa still wants to sleep in the day and play around at night. Hopefully, this will settle itself soon!

When I told people that we were doing a cross-country RV trip, quite a few people mentioned that they had always dreamed of doing this themselves. Indeed it was quite an experience, one we'll remember for a lifetime, but I thought I would mention the cost of doing so, as we way underestimated how much this trip was going to set us back (not to say we wouldn't have gone through with it).

Renting the RV - about $2400

We were lucky in this regard. The company we rented the RV from actually wanted the RV moved from New Jersey to Seattle, which was why we travelled the way we did. Originally, we wanted to go from NY to LA, but the other companies we contacted wanted over $5000, which included a good $2000-$3000 for a one-way drop-off fee. Since we were doing them a favor taking the RV to Seattle, they waived the one-way drop-off fee. How nice of them!

Gasoline (petrol) - about $2300

When I left the States in 2004, I remember the cost of gasoline reaching record highs of $2.30 a gallon or EUR 0.40 a liter (all conversions assume EUR 1.00 = $1.50). And not knowing that the cost of gasoline had gone up in the meantime, I planned the trip accordingly.

In reality, the cost of gasoline ranged from $3.20/gal (EUR 0.56/l) on the East Coast to $3.90/gal (EUR 0.68/l) on the West Coast. When you are planning a trip of over 5,200 miles (8,300 km) and you're driving a vehicle that consumes 8 mpg (3.4 km per liter), it tends to add up.

For those of you reading this in the US, let me tell you how much we pay for gasoline here in Holland. The cheapest gasoline here costs about EUR 1.50 per liter. That translates to$8.60 /gal. Think of that next time you complain about the rising cost of gasoline.

RV Site Hook Ups - around $550.

We didn't know how legal nor how safe it was to pull up along the side of the road, and to be honest, we didn't really feel like finding out. RV-ing is a common and popular pasttime in the US and you can easily find these RV parks in most towns and parks. In fact, a lot of them are quite nice. You can hook your RV up to electricity, water, sewer, and cable, and most offer free wi-fi (wireless internet). The state parks are often the worst, as they sometimes offer electricity and water. When we were in Ventura, we had nothing - which is OK, as the RV has water tanks and sizeable sewer tanks. Most places cost $25-$30 per night, but would be extra had we extra people or extra vehicles.

All told, we spent about $5200 on the rental, gasoline and RV hook-up fees.

This amount does not include the cost of food, airfare, entertainment, nor the costs resulting from our little accident, which set us back $1200. It's amazing how much a little dent can end up costing!