A Priceless Adventure

RaeRay’s Great Adventure was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a father. The only thing that could have made it better would have been traveling with both of my daughters. When I started talking about a cross-country trip last year, Morgan became immediately excited about seeing
California. Her sister Kaki, 17 months younger, probably saw it as nine days stuck with Dad. As the time neared, Kaki said she would have gone if not for her job in Pensacola.

RaeRay had set a rough budget for the trip. We expected gas to be our major expense. With no idea what prices would be from state to state, we estimated an average of $4. The highest cost was in California, where we paid $4.67 in Burbank and about $4.25 in other areas. In Illinois, a gallon of gas cost $4.17. Across the Southwest, we paid about $3.80, and in the Midwest it dropped to $3.60. The average was probably about $3.85. I would rather have taken a Mazda SUV, but it gets about 20 miles to the gallon. We had determined our Honda Civic would average 32 miles. We estimated the cost of gas to be $960 for the Mazda and $628 for the Honda. Over the 4,880-mile trip, our little blue Honda actually burned $594 in gas.

We had expected to spend five nights in hotels and hoped to pay $100 per day. Our actual cost was $564.09 with much better lodging than we expected and complimentary breakfast at all but one. A Staybridge Suites in Las Cruces had a full kitchen and living room for $137.56. The Grand Hyatt in Denver required us to valet park the car and totaled $171.56. The only room we
could find in Mesquite, NM, was a closed-down casino called the Oasis, which was used as overflow space from the Casa Blanca casino across the street. Its price was $67.19. Hotels in Dallas (Farfield by Marriott) and St. Louis (Pear Tree Inn by Drury) cost in the mid-$90s. We stayed with friends in New Orleans and San Diego.

The budget called for $20 apiece per day for food and fun on the trip, which would have totaled $360. Receipts for food, snacks, and parking add up to $280.21, but gifts – RaeRay loves to shop – added another $241.60. Included in the food figure was $28 for riding the roller coaster atop New York-New York casino in Las Vegas.

The overall price for RaeRay’s Great Adventure was $1,679.76. At least, that’s what receipts show. We even kept receipts for soft drinks at gas stations along the way. We paid for practically everything on a credit card. I left home with $500 in cash, and Morgan had less than $100. Nine
days later, we arrived home with more than $200 cash left over. RaeRay had expected to spend just under $1,500 for the trip. That puts us nearly $200 over budget. No one is complaining. The experience was priceless.