Thursday, February 24, 2011

2011 Vacation Planning – Dad’s House & Graceland

We’re planning on a road trip vacation this year stopping first at my Dad’s house in Arkansas and then on to Memphis and Graceland. Can we afford this trip? Nope! Not yet but if we sell off a few things and continue on this path of no spending then we should be able to pull this off. I figure 2 tanks of gas will round out to about $550.00 each way so $1,100.00 in gas (4 tanks total), throw in an extra $150.00 in for good measure because we’ll be using the wife’s Escape to run around and the RV will either get 8mpg or less, if less the extra $ will be needed.

We could almost go on a cruise for the gas money alone! Total miles just for the RV on this trip will be 1,531 for the trip plus another 45 miles to get the RV from storage. We aren’t sure how many days we’ll be able to take off for this trip or even when we’re going yet but when we do, this will be where we go. We haven’t had a real vacation in years so I hope this works out! It would be perfect if we could make it 2 weeks but that’s doubtful at this point.

It will give us a chance to stretch the RV’s legs and see how she’ll do on a real road trip though and will also let us know how she might hold up going full time if the need should arise.

                              Map of the route, when we hit the road

Route Map -Round Trip

11 comments:

Teri said...

Don't miss Beale Street if you go to Memphis. Graceland is ok, but costs $$$. Walking around Beale Street and listening to the music is free.

Diana said...

OMG Erik, you two will be driving right past my house! We live right off of 57, exit 95. You and Ronda should stop by so we can Holla!!!
My daughters went to Graceland and loved it! Love Di ♥

Sam&Donna Weibel said...

Erik, if you are going by way of I-55 you can take the I-270 bypass around St Louis to I-44, we are 18 miles west of i-270 on I-70 & I64, spend the night here at the Weeb Ranch and it's free, You save 30 dollars, and meet some fellow bloggers, then you can go A mile to I-64 and then south back to I-270, to I-44, It's a winner for you. Be safe out there, Sam & Donna..

Merikay said...

We will be watching.

Alan and Marilyn McMillan said...

Thanks for becoming a follower of our blog -- blessourvoyage. There are a couple of places in the Memphis area you might want to check out to park your RV. One is Tom Sawyer's RV Park -- it is on the AR side of the MS River and if you have Good Sam's, it is approx $25 a night. Don't know how you feel about casinos but Tunica, MS is just down the road from Memphis & has several RV parks...full hookups for less than $20 a night. Good luck.

Erik's RV Blog said...

If we can get 2 weeks we are going to take people up on their offers! :) If we can only take one week it's going to be very hard to take side trips but we're in the planning stages now and we really appreciate that people would want to meet us like this.

Thanks everybody. :)~

Kevin Read said...

Unless you are a huge Elvis fan, I don't think I would spend the money on going to Graceland. Kevin and I did it at the beginning of November, you can read about our day here

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2010/11/graceland-memphis-day-2.html

We did enjoy our day but didn't feel it was really worth the price. If you are big Elvis fans then I am sure you would get much more out of it than we did.

Kevin and Ruth
http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2010/11/graceland-memphis-day-2.html

Big Matt said...

Erik, what's the capacity of your fuel tank?

Erik's RV Blog said...

Matt,

75 gallons but I would never let it get below 1/4 of a tank. My guestimates are based on the 7.9mpg I got on the last trip.

Big Matt said...

Looks like you're already planning ahead for the $5 fuel Erik, just re-ran the numbers using your 3/4 tank math and it boils out to what you're figures are :).

Erik's RV Blog said...

Matt,

Yeah, actually, I'm afraid if things keep up as they are it may be more than that by then. Tomorrow I'm going up to the rig to fill it up completely so our trip in March will be taken care of.

I'm planning for the worst and praying for the best. ;) Whatever money we don't use can go back into savings.