Using Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005 we have calculated our planned trip map for our upcoming annual summer vacation, fuel cost is being calculated at $2.50 per gallon and using 22 miles per gallon as an average highway mile rate. Total planned miles for trip: 3,359.9 miles with drive time of 52 hours, 37 minutes, which according to software projection is 7 days of scheduled driving. Approximately 20% of the trip time will be spent in the car. Yes, we could fly or take the train (which we actually discussed at one point) but a car gives us the most travel flexibility.

States planned to be visited
(5) Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California

Projected Trip costs (US dollars)

• Fuel cost: $381.89
• Lodging costs: $700 - We are going to be staying with my father for a couple days and we have a free room for two nights in Reno (though we are only planning on staying one night there) the other seven nights are calculated at an average stay of $100/night, which for a family of five is fairly optimistic over the holiday.
• Food costs: $1,350 - We estimate three meals a day with snacks for a food/drink cost of $150/day x 9 days = $1,350. We actually plan to be gone more than 9 days, but when we stay at Reno we have some free food offers there and at my father’s place we figure we’ll be paying less for groceries over the 4th holiday (BBQ, for example). We probably could save a few bucks here by making our own sandwich and taking a cooler, which we will probably also do, so this number is admittedly on the high side. However, you factor in the expensive food inside DisneyLand and other entertainment venues, plus dinner somewhere nice a few times and this number might be fairly accurate.
• Entertainment costs: $???$ - This is the great unknown. We are going to keep a running tally on this one. As in year’s past, we’ll stop the car whenever, whereever we want to along the way. We do have some fixed predictable costs planned like Universal Studios and DisneyLand for family of five, but most our entertainment costs are unknown. We’ve set aside a floating budgetary figure of $2,000 which is about $200 per day on average.

Total projected trip cost: $4,431.89

Vehicle
2005 Saturn Relay with OnStar and Verizon hands-free cellular service

Equipment / Hardware
Sony VAIO laptop
M1400 Tablet PC + external CD/RW drive, USB mouse and keyboard
HP Digital camera
Aiptek DV100 video camera
Xbox + games
Playstation 2 + games
PSP + games
Two portable DVD/MP3 players
*Burned MP3 CDs (numerous)
Crossover cable
one DC to AC converter (need to purchase a second one)
Power strip

Software
Microsoft Streets & Trips w/ GPS
OneNote
Skype
Firefox, Internet Explorer
iTunes (podcasts mostly), Yahoo Music Engine, Winamp
SecureFX, SecureCRT (for FTP and ssh)
Notetab Light
Outlook 2003, Gmail
Adobe Photoshop
Zinio (for reading magazines)
Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies

* We’re filling up a bunch of CDs with podcasts that seem interesting, so we can play via the Saturn Relay stereo (it plays MP3). Any suggestions of good podcasts to listen to and take along for the trip?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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