Budget Wrap Up - WINTER GETAWAY 2026

(I HAD WRITTEN THIS ALMOST 2 WEEKS AGO, BUT FORGOT TO POST IT)

Now that we've been home for a couple of weeks, we've been catching everything up around the house. I thought it's about time that I do a budget wrap up for the entire trip. 

Total miles that we traveled: 2,536

Total days that we were gone: 44

Here's a map of our route. It sure doesn't look like we went very far when you look at the scope of the vastness of the United States. But I would rather take smaller loops like this and explore one region of the country than make a full loop around the entire United States.

Longest drive day was our last day heading home: 513 miles. But it was mostly tail winds. There weren't any campgrounds open to stop at between Northern Missouri and Wisconsin. So we just decided to keep on going and get home.

Now people ask us questions about how much it costs to travel. Of course everybody's traveling style varies. So I'm going to give you the numbers that we actually had over our 44-day trip.

FUEL: 

$611.16 

We started with a full tank and ended with the almost full tank. So our actual diesel fuel costs are pretty close considering that reserve.

Our Winnebago View has a Sprinter chassis with a Mercedes engine. It requires DEF, diesel exhaust fluid. About every 2,000 miles we need to toss in a jug.

DEF $17.43

Average. 12.58 MPG

This is with pulling our little cargo trailer that weighs about 650 lb. We have probably 300 to 500 lb of cargo inside of it. We are able to pull up to 5,000 pounds with our motorhome. When we do not pull the cargo trailer we average about 14.5 MPG. 

So our overall cost of fuel per day is $13.88.

CAMPING FEES:

Now this is another one that really can differ depending on your camping preferences. 

Campground total $629.00

44 nights total.  41 nights we paid for camping.    3 nights boondocking in our friends driveway (also known as mooch-docking)

Average $15.34

We try to camp at rustic National Forest Campgrounds or camping at the Army Corps of Engineer Parks where we can use our America the Beautiful Senior Access Pass. This grants us half price on our camping fees at Federal campgrounds. It also gives a free entrance to all national parks and monuments.

We did do State Park camping in Missouri, and one fee type camping at the gas station in Wenona, Illinois. We also did one KOA in Missouri on our way home.  The rest of the time we were at Army Corps of Engineers and paid on the average $8 to $9 per night for electric and water hookups.

Now, on the other hand, if you are used to full hookups with sewer and water and electric and cable, you could be paying $40 to $60 a night on average. So figure that into your budget appropriately.

PROPANE:

We started with a full tank and only filled once for $19.57.

Our motorhome uses propane for:

the cooking stove and oven, 

the refrigerator, 

the water heater,

and the furnace as needed. 

But if we happen to be at the Corps of Engineer Parks with electrical hookups, the refrigerator switches over automatically to electric. We have an electric version mode on our water heater. And if we are hooked up to electric we can run the heat pump from the roof air conditioner or an electric space heater to warm us instead of the propane furnace. All of those things save on our propane consumption if we happen to have electric hookups.

This next category is also kind of subject to your own personal preferences. Some people like to cook all of their meals in their camper, like us.

Of course if you are the type of people that like to go to restaurants all of the time, your grocery totals will be a lot less.

GROCERIES:

7 weeks $518.86

Started with a lot of groceries on hand from our house, and we came home with other groceries bought along the way to carry back in.

Some of this is also odds and ends like cleaning supplies or tin foil or laundry soap, etc but I just lump them all into the grocery category because we bought them all at the same time. I wasn't going to get that particular on separating the items.

We left with an ample supply of Nicholas's specific brand of dog food. While we were traveling we were getting a little nervous about running out at the end and decided to stop and buy one more bag. Tractor Supply carries his brand so we knew we could get it wherever we were traveling.

Dog food $23.08

It's not good to swap brands on a dog, especially during traveling. Especially a long haired butt dog, if you get my drift... Ewwww!

MISCELLANEOUS:

Now we had a couple extra things in our category of "miscellaneous":

Beer $33.99 

Twice Steve stopped and bought some of his favorite brand of beer. And after 44 days, we actually came home with 4 beers left over.

I brought my own supply of wine bottles from home of "Two Buck Chuck" from Trader Joe's (Charles Shaw White Zinfandel wine).

Restaurant or fast food: 

We did splurge on our absolute favorite Godfather's Pizza in Lebanon, Missouri. $26 but a large pizza like this is actually three meals, sometimes four. We repackage it two slices per Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer. We reheat the slices in our air fryer which tastes almost as good as when it first comes out of the box.

If you've ever had

 Godfather's Classic Combo, 

then you know!

REPAIRS: 

We add into our budget little things such as maintenance and repairs while we are traveling. Of course, the cost of replacing something or fixing something is absorbed into future use down the road. But it is a category we keep track of while we are traveling. 

The first night in the RV parking slot at the Burger King / Shell in Wenona Illinois the winds were very, very strong! The door whipped out of our hands, and when it slammed back shut it actually broke this little plastic lever that is attached to our screen door. It allows the screen door to open simultaneously with the big door. And the lever of the laughing system got smacked right off! 

We ordered a replacement latch system from Amazon and picked it up when we were in Arkansas from a counter-ship location. It wasn't quite the right replacement, but it was good enough to finish the rest of the trip. The doors would still work, but not in combination together. We did find the exact matching one later and had it shipped to our next location on the way home in Oklahoma. So both latches together cost:

Repairs door locks $80.04

That is our budget for fuel, camping, groceries and all of our miscellaneous categories.

OVERALL TRAVELING AVERAGE

$1,277 TOTAL FOR 44 DAYS

$29.02 PER DAY

While we were gone, the huge Blizzard Elsa, also known as Snowmageddon, hit Wisconsin and most of the Midwest. Our driveway was filled up with over 3 ft of snow. We hadn't planned to get home until after it all melted. But, plans changed and we decided to get home when we did during the end of March. We knew there was still a good 2 to 3 ft in the driveway and it was solid and crunchy and heavy wet snow. 

Our wonderful neighbor Adam has a tractor with a big back blade. He is also young and strong, and does snow removal and lawn work on the side, in addition to his regular job.

We asked him to come over and at least yank out enough snow that we could pull in the 25-ft motorhome and the little 6 ft cargo trailer. He cleared more than enough so we could get in the driveway upon our arrival. Then he decided to keep on going for a couple hours and completely remove all of our snow from the driveway and the sidewalks and doorways etc. 

He had set a price, and we insisted that we double it! So that was part of our budget, and it was well worth paying our neighbor to move our snow! $100

On our video, in the link below, we talked about some of the highlights of our trip. We each decided to post our "FAVORITES"

Best campground choice:

Karen - Buckhorn Creek Corps of Engineers Campground on Lake of the Pines, Texas. 

This was hands down my favorite campground. We were in a perfect location with tall trees to the south of us to protect us from the winds. We could see the sun rising from the East and setting in the West and we had a perfect wide open view out our patio side to the North.

This place was peaceful and quiet. Serene and relaxing. We enjoyed it so much the first week we actually renewed our campsite for a second week. That is the limit of 14 days with the Corps of Engineer Parks. We enjoyed every minute of it!!! 

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/232536

Steve - Pat Mayse Lake West Campground. This was also a Corps of Engineers Park in Texas. Steve loved that our campsite was out on a peninsula. It had a cement parking pad and 360° view just about in every direction of the water.

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/233579

This is not a crazy stretched photo from a digital camera. Notice the straight horizon in the background. This is literally how the shoreline swept around us in a big arc, with a sandy beach all around us.

We literally sat here, day after day, watching the waves on the water, huge flocks of pelicans fly by, and enjoying the peacefulness of not having anybody else around us. 

A few huge storms started up while we were here. We had to vacate the site one night to go up and park near the dump station by the shower building for safety. Another night we moved to a campsite over the hill that was less exposed to the heavy winds.  In spite of the crazy weather, we really enjoyed this campground.

Our cheapest campground was $8 a night using our Senior Access Pass at Platter Flats in Oklahoma.

Most expensive campground we stayed at was a KOA Lebenon, Missouri $56 a night!!! This was a "Steve Splurge" because we were going to boondock in a Walmart overnight. The weather was very uncomfortable with high heat radiating off the pavement. The crazy "Heat Dome" that was descending on the Southwest was catching up to us. He opted to go to the KOA where we could have full hookups and operate the air conditioner all night long in comfort.

All in all, during the first month, we enjoyed the weather. We had many days in the '70s and comfortable evenings in the 50s.

But ... We spent a lot of the second month dodging storms!!! Between the ferocious winds and the large amount of thunderstorms passing over us, we were dodging either the Heat when we were parked or the Wind when we were driving. It seemed like band after band of storms were passing over us during the month of March. Many times they were compounded with heat fronts and then cold fronts, fluctuating the temperatures. We had days forecasted getting up to the '90s and we decided it was time to escape and get North faster than we had planned. The weather was exceptionally strange for that time of year in that area of the United States.

WHAT WE ENJOYED MOST WHILE CAMPING:

Relaxing- this was really one of our main goals during this getaway. We weren't up to running around doing a bunch of touristy things, touring a bunch of historical sites or fancy attractions. We just wanted to get somewhere warm and to relax.

What did we do the most? Bike riding, especially around Jonesboro Craigshead Forest. Some of the Corps of Engineer Campgrounds had a large network of trails and roads to pedal around on. Other times we actually left the campgrounds and pedaled in outside areas.  

Taking along our e-bikes instead of a towed vehicle, is a real bonus for us. We get outside and get fresh air and exercise.  We don't just twist and go with the throttle, we actually pedal and use the pedal assist mode to help us on hills and long distances.  They have really added to our enjoyment as well as our health.

We love using our e-bikes, and we take our little trailer behind for Nick to ride with us.  He gets so excited when we set it up, and he jumps in before we are even ready to go.

So what else do we enjoy while traveling?? We try to mostly avoid the interstates if we can. Back roads, which we call "red roads" on the map, driving at 55 mph or even less. We enjoy the scenery and the terrain, as well as the small towns and interesting architecture. 

(From the interstate you only see the same chain store businesses and hotels and billboards)

WHAT ARE WE ENJOYING NOW AT HOME:

Unlimited water for showers & dishes & laundry... Not having to carefully monitor the usage or plan ahead if we are going to be somewhere without additional water access.

Now having a dishwasher again!

After being home now for a week, not raising my foot for imaginary pedal to flush toilet. 

Having the big fenced in potty yard just outside the open door for letting Nick out to do his thing. 

Nick says he enjoyed having snow when we got home! He was pretty tickled that he could roll around and play in it and eat it.

Want to hear something funny? Right before we left, Steve bought a DJI Neo2 drone. We brought it along, but never tried it out. 

I guess we just never had the time nor the inclination to learn some new technology while we were out and about. So once we got home, Steve got it out and we tried it in our own backyard.

I told him it's specifically "his toy" and all I wanted was some aerial footage to add to my videos. He never felt like doing it I guess until now. It can be controlled by a controller, a cell phone, or just by hand movements! Here he is telling it what to do:

We actually got home just in time to celebrate our youngest daughter's birthday. We were able to gather with everyone at a favorite Mexican restaurant and enjoy a celebration for her as well as the welcome home for us.

What a beautiful girl, our youngest, Heather. 

A mere 5 days after we got home, our oldest daughter and son-in-law and three children hopped in their motorhome to go.... to Texas and Oklahoma!  Right where we had left!

While they were gone, we had the task of babysitting the two grandpuppies and a hedgehog....  It's much easier to travel with the rambunctious family in a 25 ft motor home without two dogs under feet or a hedgehog in a cage.  Plus, with many of the places they wanted to go, the animals would be left unattended in the motorhome. That cannot be risked in the heat due to the rising temperatures down there. Even with the generator running with the air conditioning, bad things could happen. 

BISCUIT

EWOK

and KIWI the hedgehog

We took care of them for 10 days to make the children and grandchildren's vacation easier all around. Making memories is what it's all about.

Here's the video that goes along with this blog: 

Thank you for traveling along with us! 

In the past we have done loops---

Down into the Southwest a few times, 

Many times to Florida and back, 

We have done a loop out to Maine and back, 

and a loop out West as far as Montana and back.

 Of course, our HUGE journey last summer up to Alaska and back was our biggest "loop"! 

Stay tuned for our next adventures, we are planning where we're going to go next.

Back Home For A Bit, Anniversary and Goodbye to Bob Senior

After our abbreviated camping trip last week (due to excessive heat) now our area is suffering from extreme smoke conditions due to the Canadian wildfires.

With my lung problems, it's probably a pretty good reason to stay home with our central air conditioning.

~~~~~~~~~

We got home in time to attend our youngest grandchild's cheer recital. She has been taking a fun two-week course in summer school, learning how to do cheer routines. Here she is at her little Grand Finale Finish while she stands up on another little girl's leg, while a third little girl holds her from behind. How totally adorable!

Go Claire! 

They sure had a lot of fun at summer school this year. It's just a short two week session of fun classes. She had classes in swimming, gymnastics, and cheer. Also reading and math. Her older siblings took courses in bowling, fishing, and some creative cooking classes. What a great way to transition into summer vacation.

~~~~~~~

As I mentioned, just like a lot of the northern part of the country, we are suffering with the haze left over from the Canadian wildfires. We can actually smell the smoke this week. Everything feels like it's foggy or cloudy.  The air quality is so poor that even right now we are under a very high hazardous warning on the local news.  This is supposed to be a blue sky, no clouds. 

It was so heavy yesterday we couldn't even see to our back tree line. Look way to the backyard on the photo. The trees far to the back look like they are in fog.  On top of it, it's going to be very hot and humid today. Up to about 90. Ugh! 

Actually, I'm glad we are not camping. Otherwise we would just be sitting inside the camper again, at some campsite with electrical hookups. That's not the type of camping we like to do. We like nice quiet rustic sites out in the woods with beautiful scenery. We enjoy outdoor walks, cooking outdoors, and just sitting in our lawn chairs with a beautiful view in front of us. See last week's blog at Blind Sucker #2 campsite. That's our kind of camping!

Since we were stuck at home for a while, it's fun to get out and take a spin in the Mustang. Tuesday evening there was a concert in the park here in town. We took the car out and sat there in the parking area for a little while listening to the music.  Then we then zoomed around along the shores of Green Bay. 

But then.... we had to go home and start prepping Steve for his Wednesday adventure. 

Prepping is the right word. He had his 10 year colonoscopy performed in Green Bay. Ahhhh the things we go through as we age. But it's important that he does this, especially with his father's history of colon cancer. 

~~~~~~~~

Thursday morning we sat out comfy and relaxed on our front porch. It was somewhat breezy so the haze was lifted for a while. We really enjoy sitting out on the porch and it is actually an extension of our living area during the spring, summer and fall.

A couple weeks ago I hung these beautiful ferns from the front porch. They are becoming so pot bound that I want to put them in larger hanging baskets with cocoa matts to help retain the moisture. I really love the look of these three big ferns hanging on the front porch. 

The only problem is, the cute little wrens in the area decided that they really like them too! So much so, that they built nests in two of them! Oh my, that means I cannot repot the ferns until the babies are all hatched, fed and raised, and flying out of the nest. 

I was perplexed on how I could water them because I did not want to drown little baby birds! A friend of mine suggested getting some of these glass ball watering globes. I slide them out carefully and fill them up with water each day, sometimes twice a day cuz it's very hot on the west side of the house. Then I slide them back into the fern on the side farthest away from the nests.

So far it's working, and mama or daddy bird fly away when I come out there. But then they fly back again. We have not pulled the baskets down to look at the progress of what's going on in the nests right now. When we first found them there was one egg in one basket and three eggs in the other. The third fern doesn't have any nests in it.

Sitting out on the front porch, you can see the haze up the road to the north. It wasn't so bad on Thursday. This morning they said we might get a little east/west breeze and blow more away.  I hope so.

In the morning hours, we enjoy this part of the front porch to relax.  It gets hot in the afternoon, because it faces to the west and is no longer in the shade. 

In our morning routine, we pull the cushions out of the tote for our chairs and I bring out my spinning wheel for a peaceful morning to relax and listen to the birds.  I have a little bluetooth speaker for playing soft music and Steve refills the coffee mugs as we enjoy our porch. There's a bird bath right in front of the porch, down in the flower bed, the birds have really been diving in and out to get its moisture. We haven't had rain again for a while so they are stopping by just to grab a drink or take a bath. Binney is "on duty" to warn us about any burglars who might be walking by or riding on a bike in front of the house. That is her job to protect us.  If they stop to chat, she HIDES behind our chairs. LOL

I try to go around and water all of the flowers and plants early in the morning. Yesterday morning I came upon this little surprise! The foremost hosta in the foreground here has been chewed down to almost nothing! Those sassy deer.

 

Usually one or two times a week I spray diluted Louisiana hot sauce with water in a garden pump sprayer....  and also sprinkle on cayenne pepper onto my hostas and some of my other more delicate desirable plants. But because we were supposed to get a thunderstorm, (which never happened), I didn't spritz them when I was going to. By the next morning those little buggers had chewed the hostas right down to the ground. Two of my other ones in the west and south flower beds also were chewed down. Guess I have to be more vigilant on my hot sauce patrol. 

Since we were home for a couple days, we decided to work on some Home Maintenance projects. Last year we put in this patio area near the side She Shed door leading out into the dog potty yard. Now that all of the big paving stones have settled and are reasonably level with a little bit of drainage slope, we need to address the cracks. Steve took out his air compressor with the blow nozzle and took care of blowing out any clumps of dirt, weeds, and little ant hills that keep appearing. 

The paving stones are actually large 16 in by 16 inch blocks with grooves cut into them to look like individual stones. But you can see the larger grid pattern of the 16x16 blocks. That's where all the weeds and the ant hills are sprouting up from. 

We already used a product called polymeric sand on the sidewalk leading from the driveway up to the pergola. This is the finished result. This is what we're planning to do on the patio grid of blocks as well. It makes them look like individual paving stones now, not just big blocks.  

Here is the polymeric sand. I guess it's a bag of sand mixed with some form of a concrete and polymer glue sticky stuff. The bag we grabbed happened to be tan. In retrospect, we should have maybe grabbed gray? But on the other hand, the look of the tan almost looks like sand between the blocks and is kind of cool too. I think I like the contrast. But at least, you know you can get different colors if you wish. 

It is swept gently into the cracks and try to keep the top surface of the blocks free and clear from excess sand. At first I tried using a little household broom about 10 inches wide. That didn't work so well--- it kept pulling the sand right back up out of the grooves. Instead I used a wide shop garage type floor sweeper broom. That kept things more level and helped guide it into the cracks and not pull it back up again.

Once it was as evenly distributed as I could get it, now it was time to lightly mist with a hose. You cannot spray any type of a blasting spray or large drops. That distorts the sand and moves it around too much. Just the lightest mist to get it moistened and activate the polymers. 

After the first misting, once it dried, I swept away any excess that really didn't need to be on top surface of the stones. Then I gave it its second misting, and this set it up more firmly. About an hour later, I gave it its third batch this time a little heavier. Now I know it's sinks down in between the cracks and activates everything down below. Soon it dries to almost a cement-like consistency.

On Wednesday, it was also another special day for us to celebrate. It is 26 years of wedded bliss to my dear darling Steve. It's hard to believe that 26 years ago we stood on this hot humid day and became husband and wife. We actually got married in a state park! We rented the Moravian chapel at the Heritage Hill State Park in Green Bay. Afterwards we had a beautiful reception on the shores of the Fox River on the grounds of my employer. He owned a beautiful office complex called Meadowbrook that had grounds with ponds and walkways and bridges and was absolutely a serene perfect place to hold a wedding reception. It was hot and humid, but at least it didn't rain!

Afterwards, we sped off in our little red Fiat Spider convertible to a unique bed and breakfast. We only spent one night there for our honeymoon, then we hopped in our camper and went north! For two weeks we circled Lake Superior around through Canada and enjoyed our honeymoon together doing what we both enjoyed best. Camping!

This year, to celebrate our anniversary we are staying home due to the heat and humidity and smoke. But we decided to celebrate and steam up some lovely Alaskan snow crab legs. It's one of our favorites and Steve cooks it outside on a propane burner unit meant for deep frying turkeys. He perfectly times them from frozen to tossed into a rolling boil for 14 minutes. They come out perfect every time. 

A romantic anniversary dinner with baked potatoes and salads alongside of our steamed crab legs. Couple glasses of wine and some candlelight rounded it off to a beautiful evening together. 

~~~~~~~~

As a final note, we would like to say goodbye to a dear camping friend of ours who passed away this week. 

Many many years ago, probably about 25 or so, my brother had a friend named Rick. 

Rick had a buddy named Bob. I think they worked together. 

Well... Bob happened to mention he had a father who was retiring from the postal service down in Lower Michigan. He was going to come up to the Upper Peninsula to retire. He enjoyed fishing, hunting and camping! But since he didn't know anybody he was looking for someone to go camping with.

So Bob mentioned to Rick, "Hey I know your friend Butch's family likes camping. Do they ever want to have an extra guy tag along? And he has his own camper. He's just looking for people to go camping with"?  

So Rick asked my brother Butch if this guy, who none of us even knew, could tag along with us. My brother replied:  "Sure! The more the merrier!"

Well, Bob Sr, fondly from then known as "Senior" became a constant camping companion with our family. Anytime any of us were headed out to a campground, any of the National Forest parks or anywhere nearby, we would give him a call or leave a message on Senior's voicemail of where we were going. Sure enough, within an hour or two he would show up and pull into a campsite near us. That was just enough time to throw in some things into his camper and hook up and head on out to join us. By the second year, it got to where we would save a campsite specifically for him and strategically park our campers so we could all be in one area of the campground.

Many, many, many nights were spent around the campfire with Senior, and all of the world's problems were solved. He became a part of the family and we shared in all of our meals, fishing excursions, and campfires. We helped him with things, and he helped us. He became part of our lives, and our children loved him and he was like a grandfather to our grandkids too.

This photo I took the last time we were together last year, of he and Steve enjoying an evening by the campfire---- after dinner with a couple beverages of their choice. 

He truly became a part of our camping group. When everybody else got woven lawn chairs that my sister and I make, we were sure to make one for Bob. We couldn't fit the whole word Senior on there, so we just did Bob and a fish. You can see the guys in this picture, solving more of the world's problems with their lawn chairs. 

Bob's daughter Laura, who lives in lower Michigan, told me yesterday how much that chair meant to him. And how much our family meant to him by taking him in under our wing. If he could have taken that chair to Heaven, I am sure he would have.

We will see you sitting around that

 Great Big Campfire in the Sky, Senior. 

This time you are first one to the campground, 

and YOU have to save a spot for US!!!