Our Travel Budget

People comment often about how much we travel and how we afford it. My dad is the only one who gets it. He comments about how frugal we are because he realizes we're still sleeping on the ground and eating out of a cooler on these trips. We were not blessed with children and so we have more opportunity than a lot of people to just "Go!" But it's not like we stay at five star resorts all the time either. It was way too windy in Death Valley for a campfire, so we cooked on our little camp stove, blocking the wind as best we could. We only had to relight the stove twice! The sauerkraut was TR's idea...he is of German ancestry you know. Between getting through my "medical appointment" on Monday and doing homework, temple work, and attending class on Tuesday, all the trip prep was left up to TR. And...he was in the mood for sauerkraut.

For breakfast he pulled out these Rice Krispies, in holiday colors! I asked when we acquired those...and he told me they were on sale in January for a dollar. This is how we manage, folks. This is how we're able to financially swing all of our jaunts and journeys.

And let's not forget the annual pass which gets us into all the national parks (and several other federal lands) for "free" once you've made up for the $80 fee. As for entertainment, we walk and hike, we look at stars, and we exclaim over all the Lord's handiwork. It's what they call, "Good, cheap FUN!"

And the sleeping arrangements? Well. We have a tent. And we're usually able to stake it to the ground, but in Death Valley, the ground was too hard for stakes. For the first ten years of our marriage, we packed some rope with us at all times, but because we didn't use it in ten years, I put it to use at school for a Clear Creek activity. We could have staked our tent to the big rocks if we would have had a little rope...but we made out alright. The tent never collapsed on us and it never took flight, so it was all good!