Road Trips in the time of COVID

Pat and I just got back from our 2021 road trip, where I started out on July 28, and he joined me in Missoula, MT. 

It was a bit less stressful than last year, and I can't help but think that a lot of the reason was because we decided to tent camp as much as possible, unlike last year, where we spent probably too many nights at hotels. 

To me, the tent camping took a few elements of the COVID transmission off the table; we weren't at the mercy of others for cleaning our sleeping quarters, and even encountering others, we were in the open air. 

A typical camp site with the Crosstrek and our tents. 

We usually drove 2-3 hours between places we stopped to visit, and so there was plenty of time to talk about things, such as "should we have bought Mom's RV?" or "maybe we should stay at a hotel?" In the end, for the two of us, tent camping made much more financial sense. 

Having done three years of road trips with my mom and her Pleasure-Way RV, I have some experience on that front, and the multiple trips to and from Packwood for the ProSolos there had me very acquainted with staying at hotels on the road. 

Here's a breakdown for 2021 :

• Tent sites at KOA campgrounds cost $30-50. A site with water and/or electric will cost more, so if you have charger banks for electronics, use them and charge them in the car during the driving to avoid needing an outlet. A $33 KOA Rewards membership gets you 10% off, and then you accrue "points" that can get you more money off a night. I recouped the $33 membership cost with the savings in the first week of the trip, and accrued enough points to get $20 off a stay by the end of the trip. 
• Hotel costs on the trip in 2021 were ridiculous. I got a hotel in Missoula because Pat's flight came in at 11PM, and I made that reservation two months prior to the trip. It was still $140 ($126+tax), and then the room didn't even include a fridge! (the front desk clerk said, "Oh, most of our rooms have them; I guess you got one without."). When we looked at hotels for the next night in the Bozeman/Livingston/Butte area, they started at $225+tax. Needless to say, we went with the Three Forks KOA, which was one of the best decisions of the trip. Definitely go to the Iron Horse Cafe for pie if you go through Three Forks.
• For tent camping, make sure you have a vehicle that you can "hide out" in if necessary. The first three nights of the trip, I dealt with nasty thunderstorms, so after I set up the tent (which is waterproof), I "hid" in the Crosstrek until the worst of it had passed.  

The gluten-free Key Lime pie from Iron Horse was incredibly decadent. Pat couldn't eat all of it as dessert, and finished it for breakfast the next morning. 

• Gas is a big cost, and probably the biggest cost difference between a tent camping road trip and an RV road trip. While both the Crosstrek and the Pleasure-Way RV take "regular" unleaded gas, the Crosstrek averages ~36 MPG (35.2MPG last year and 36.5MPG this year, both years ~7500 miles traveled, including both Rocky and Appalachian mountain crossings). The Pleasure-Way, a modified E350 chassis and engine, was 14-15MPG. At an average of $3/gal for regular gas (I did splurge one day and gave the Crosstrek mid-grade, because I wanted to reward it for its hard work in the desert heat), that adds up, fast. 
• 7500 miles at 36MPG is about 208 gallons of gas. At $3/gal, that's $624 in gas alone (and I'm being nice with my averages; it was probably more than $3/gal). 
• 7500 miles at 15MPG is about 500 gallons of gas. At the same $3/gal, that's $1500 in gas. A larger RV (my mom's Pleasure-Way was a class C and only fit two people) is probably not going to do as well mileage-wise. And a diesel motor might not help, as diesel costs were close to $4/gal, even if the MPG might be better. 
• I went through a lot of ice in the coolers, which an RV doesn't need to worry about. I wasn't using top-of-the-line plastiformed coolers, but they are lightweight, don't take up huge space and do what I need them to do. Still, I was buying 20lb of ice each day, at about $6 per day for ice. For a 19 day trip, that comes out to about $115 in ice. 
• RVs allow for a huge discount on food, since you don't have to eat out when you have a kitchen and a fridge with you. Tent camping means bringing things in coolers and/or using MREs or other freeze-dried options. I have a great campstove for cooking on, though I have to admit, cooking on it when there is an impending thunderstorm is a little daunting. 

Heating up some water to rehydrate a freeze-dried meal for dinner in Rawlins, WY

Walleye cooked on the campstove grill. We caught the fish at Rainy Lake.

Brats (glorified hotdogs?) on the campstove. We have the grill attachment for our Biolite, which is great.

• Breakfast was usually a mini-bagel with cheese, and lunch was a piece of fruit, granola bar and a sandwich. You just have to make sure the cheese and any deli meat doesn't get wet in the cooler. Fruit was bananas, plums, nectarines, etc. This meal plan was true for the RV trips with mom, too. 
• If you opt to "eat out," plan on paying upwards of $15-20/person (gratuity included, more if you get beer/wine). That's a far cry from buying a $5/pk of five brats, and a $3 loaf of bread, or even a $9 "southwest skillet" rehydrated meal (which was actually really good). 
• Just looking at food, gas and lodging costs, a pure tent camping experience could be had for less than $2000 over 19 days/7500 miles, not counting any admission fees for parks. Mixing in a hotel night or a meal out here and there will increase that cost. Since we were fishing on Rainy Lake with a guide service as part of our trip, I'd opted to get rooms at a lodge on the lake as a bit of a splurge, but I have to admit, that walleye taco wrap at the Thunderbird Lodge is amazing. 
• An RV trip over the same amount of time/miles will be about a thousand more in gas, a hundred less in ice, and about $500 more in lodging costs (depending on the size of the RV, and whether you need water/electric/dump hookups). So, estimate for 19 days to be still less than $3500.
• A roadtrip that relies on eating out and hotels every night is going to cost at least $4200 for two people and a vehicle that can get upwards of 35MPG (regular grade gasoline). 

Some other ideas to reduce the costs :

• Get a National Parks Pass if you plan to visit multiple parks that have entrance fees. For $80, you have unlimited entrance to all NPS and associated (BLM, National Wildlife Refuge, etc.) sites for a year. 
• There are ways to get a free NPS pass, but you need to qualify. Students in the fourth grade qualify, as do military/veterans. If you're over 62, you can get a lifetime pass for $80, versus paying $80 annually. Certain disabilities also qualify for a free NPS pass. If you volunteer in a park and accrue more than 250 hours, you can also qualify for a free NPS pass. 
• Plan to visit smaller, less crowded sites and "bundle them." For instance, I visited Rock Creek Station and Fort Kearny on the same Nebraska State Parks day pass, since the pass I bought at Rock Creek didn't expire until noon the next day. 

The legend of Wild Bill Hickok was born at the Rock Creek Stage Station

• If you don't need water and electric hookups, and are willing to do the leave-no-trace principles of backcountry camping, then dispersed camping in National Forests and BLM sites is definitely an option. 
• Sign up for cash back apps like Get Upside for discounts on gasoline purchases (note that the link here is my referral link). Note that if you use an app like this, look carefully to see what you are paying; sometimes, only the most expensive stations are participating, and so you actually aren't saving money there after all. 
• Use a cash back app like iBotta for hotel reservations. iBotta will get you 3% cash back at Choice Hotels (Comfort Inn, Sleep Inn, Quality Inn, etc.), if you make the reservation through the iBotta extension on Chrome. Unlike something like Priceline, you can actually choose the hotel you want to stay at.
• iBotta will get you a discount on a ton of other things, too, so it's useful for more than just road trips. The link above is my referral link, but I wouldn't refer this (or the Get Upside app) if I didn't think they were worth the time/effort.

Above all, on a road trip, be flexible. Weather and other unforeseen circumstances may cause you to change your itinerary. Look at those billboards and if something seems interesting, do it. Wall Drug isn't for everyone (I've never been there), but others find it fascinating. On the flip side, in 2012, I saw a billboard for House on the Rock, and thought, "Wait, isn't that where Shadow and Wednesday went in American Gods?" and so decided to take a detour. 

"Take Highway Fourteen west to Spring Green. We'll be meeting everyone at a place called the House on the Rock. You been there?"

-- Wednesday to Shadow, American Gods

No matter what, enjoy your trip! 

Camping in Rawlins, WY during a thunderstorm