The Budget

Well here we go. This is a break down of everything we spent that was pertinent to the trip. This doesn't include souveniers and the occasional trip to McDonalds. I think we ate 3 times at a fast food joint.

The whole plan is to take your own foods, etc. Now this trip was of course done with a Travel Trailer and two people. I have also done the trip with with a rental van and several people, which reduces costs even more. The more people the less the cost.

One thing you will want to note is that we bought the America the Beautiful Park pass at the very first National Park we came too. This 80.00 pass seems expensive, but not if your visiting multiple parks within the trip. You can easily go over that 80.00 by visiting each park individually with no pass.

Our budget was $1000.00 each and we only went over that by about $30.00 This was due to the fact that fuel prices were higher out there then I orignally estimated. What i normally do is over estimate mileage to compensate for fuel increases, which really helped us.

If our trip was 5000, i budget for 7500. That helps with fuel estimations.

THE BUDGET ------------------------------

The Big Trip Budget

Thursday July 19, 2007

Lebanon Jct Fuel 50.00

Wal-Mart Groceries 50.00

Friday July 20, 2007

Wal-Mart Groceries 40.06

Lebanon Jct Fuel 50.00

Colonial Pantry Fuel 50.00

Camping Fee 26.50

Saturday July 21, 2007

Hucks Fuel 33.00

Flying J Fuel 67.00

Blueline Travel Fuel 63.46

Camping Fee 24.50

Sunday July 22, 2007

Triple H Fuel 51.01

National Park Pass 80.00

Windmill Fuel 67.85

Wal-Mart Groceries 85.37

Parking Mount Rushmore 8.00

Mt View Camping 31.07

Monday July 23, 2007

Read Eagle Buffalo Fuel 50.00

Shell Fuel 50.00

Camping Fee 7.50

Tuesday July 24, 2007

Chevron Fuel 50.00

Camp Fee 6.00

Wednesday July 25, 2007

Kum and Go Fuel 49.00

Loves Fuel 55.02

Camping Fee 2 nights 82.96

Thursday July 26, 2007

Propane Fill up 14.00

Shell Fuel 40.00

Friday July 27, 2007

Alpine Oil Fuel 55.02

Pleasant Valley Camping 23.67

Saturday July 28, 2007

Safeway Fuel 34.00

Mesa Verde RV Camp 30.26

Sunday July 29, 2007

Wal-Mart Groceries 112.53

Giant Fuel 40.00

Speedys Fuel 52.78

Junct Chevron Camp 16.50

Monday July 30, 2007

Petrified Chevron Fuel 15.00

Usa RV Park 27.33

Tuesday July 31, 2007

Conoco Fuel 50.01

Phillips Fuel 50.08

STuckys Fuel 55.17

Wednesday August 1, 2007

Conoco Fuel 64.00

EZ GO Fuel 43.00

Camping 22.00

Toll 8.50

Toll 8.50

Conoco Fuel 37.03

Shell Fuel 65.00

Thursday August 2, 2007

Lebanon Jct Fuel 50.00

Crossroads Fuel 45.00

2056.68 TOTAL

1028.34 (each person)

This is a very inexpensive trip. Especially if you take a large van and 3 or 4 people go. Just be sure to call ahead for rooms if you don't have a camper. I recommend a camper. We had so much fun.

This just goes to show you that you can take trips and not spend a fortune on them.

Any questions? Just email me at kythunder@gmail.com.

If you plan on taking a similar trip I can give you more details on what to do or not to do, especially if its out in the same areas as what my blog covers. I've been out there 5 times now.

Later

JJ

Adair County Is Missing out

I was thinking as I was driving today. There are a lot of miles to do a lot of thinking.

I was thinking about how Adair County is missing out. I have been out in the western states for about 2 weeks now and I have visited and stayed at some amazing places.

Some of the places I camped were not "manned" campgrounds. I camped on some beautiful lakes and yet I can't camp on our own Green River Lake.

Why we can't camp on Green River Lake is beyond me. For instance at Lake Freemont there were no attendants. What you did was take an envelope at the front of the park and fill it out, where you were camping, what you were in, your license #, etc. Then you deposited the camping fee in the envelope and drop it in the fee box. You tore off a piece of the envelope which had matching #'s and you attached it to your campsite or to the windsheild of your vehicle.

Sometime the next day a Ranger came by and verified the information.

Why Green River Lake can't do this is beyond me. I can't understand why more people aren't upset that they aren't allowed to use a lake in their own back yards.

Homeward Bound

We drove a lot today, we left New Mexico and stopped at a lot of souvenier and tourist trap places and then hit the texas panhandle. Below is a photo of AAaron at the entrance to the good ole state of Texas.



Along the way I saw a sign that said exit 112 or something like that, Largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. I had to stop. It was AWESOME. This cross is huge and not only do they have that, but they have many figures of Christ from his appearance before Pilate to the cross.


I took this photo of the statue of Jesus on the cross, with the sun setting behind him. It was truly amazing. The whole place gives you cold chills. Their was also a statue of the roman soldier nailing him to the cross, it was very hard to look at. The artist did a great job of capturing Jesus' anguish and agony when on the cross.
The whole area around the big cross and all of the statues of Jesus was amazing. When I was walking there I felt that everything in the world would be okay, it would all turn out as God intended.

I could have stayed there a lot longer.

If you go through Texas, you must stop here.
I hope to breathe Adair County air by late tomorrow or Thursday.

I'll be posting a trip wrap-up and a budget after that. :)

Safe...

God has kept us safe this whole trip and we are now safe and sound in Gallup, New Mexico. This is a shot outside of our campsite. out across the desert you can see the Thunder Heads. The weather as I type this is about 76 degreesa and its 8:57pm. That's 3 hours different from Eastern Time, because we are in the Navajo Nation.

They are on Pacific Standard Time. I know its weird, I told you they were their own Nation.

We are planning on a safe trip home from here and should be there in a coupe of days. We might stop at a few more spots along the way.

If any of you want to email me directly, you can at kythunder@gmail.com

Painted by God himself

The last six miles of the Petrified Forest Road takes you through the Painted Desert. We were very lucky, again.. as it just rained. Why would that be lucky?

Well it is said that the painted desert comes to life after the rain. The colors are more vibrant, etc. I've been here a couple of times and this time I was shocked at the beauty.


This is a photo of the painted desert and a thunderstorm above it. If you think this photo is awesome, you should see it in person. Its a 28 mile road to drive through the park @ 35 mph, but let me tell you. It is a breath taker, and pray for rain if you visit it.

Look at this photo above? Can you see where God's brush was used? Reds, golds, browns, whites, its amazing. I feel lucky to be able to see this.


Any of these photos could easily be postcards, not because we took them, but because its so easy to take a good picture here.

Petrified

Well, that's a word not used a lot in Kentucky. We left the Grand Canyon and the Sunset Volcano and headed through Flagstaff and then drove through the Petrified forest National Park.

Here is the story in short. 250 million years ago this area was a tropical rainforest and some of the area became a flood plain. Of course the trees in the flood plain died and fell over and the flood covered them in layer upon layer of silt. The silt solidified them, turning them to rock. Then years and years go by and the wind removed the silt and revealed the trees.

Scientists have matched the trees that were solidified to trees that can now only be found in the Rainforests of South America.

Below is a large chunk of a solidified tree.


Here I am being goofy, but the 250 million old hunk of tree is awesome.


The tree below fell over and the soil around it eroded and it made a bridge across this gully. Back in the 1920's or so, they used pillars to hold it up so it would not fall and eventually they used concrete to hold it up

Beautiful scenery

I just love this Sunset Volcano Park. We got in with the $80.00 pass we bought at the beginning of the trip. Every National Park or Monument accepts this pass. If you don't buy the annual pass for $80.00 then you have to pay the individual entry fees.

For instance Yellostone @ 25.00, Grand Canyon @ 25.00, Badlands @ 15.00 etc.

It saves A LOT of money, plus you get 50% off camping in any of the National areas.

This photo is of Bonito Park with the volcano in the background, this is where we pulled over for lunch.

I had to take this picture above, with the lava rock, the pines, and the blue sky, it was just gorgeous, like a painting in real life.