Sheldon wrote:
> zxcvbob wrote:
>
>>fifty five wrote:
>>
>>>Oil hit $55 per barrel and is only expected to go higher.
>>>
>>>So how much are you paying at the gas pump???
>>>
>>>Will you be driving anywhere this spring or summer?
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>$2 per gallon here (actually, it's going up and down between $1.98
>
> and
>
>>$2.05.)
>>
>>I'm planning a several thousand mile drive this summer with DD.
>
> Going
>
>>to visit relatives in Texas, then to Southern Colorado for a couple
>
> of
>
>>days, then Bryce Canyon/North Rim of Grand Canyon/Zion Nat'l Park
>
> area,
>
>>then Yellowstone, then back home to Minnesota. If gas prices go much
>
>
>>higher I may have to scale the trip back a little.
>
>
> You're talking some 6,000 miles... fuel cost would depend on your
> vehicle's gas mileage... sometimes it's less expensive to leave your
> gas guzzler at home and to rent a miserly vehicle, and you won't put
> all those miles on your own vehicle, plus those kind of trips are often
> really hard mileage journeys... run into a bit of hail or a quickie
> sand storm and you'll wish it were a rental... been there (many times),
> done that (many times), I know precisely what I'm talking about.
>
> Sheldon
>


I figure I'll take the Buick; it looks like a gas guzzler, but it gets
almost 30 miles per gallon on long trips, and it's comfortable to drive.
And I think the whole trip is "only" 4500 miles. (The round trip to
Houston is about 2400 miles.)

Also, DD will have her driving permit by then but not her license. I
want to look into whether she can legally drive in other states or not;
I'm pretty sure any rental car agreement would not let her drive. Even
if the permit is only good in MN, there's several hours of driving that
she could do at the beginning and end of the trip.

Depending on the price of gas and the price of discount plane tickets,
we might fly to Houston for a few days and then fly back to MN. Then
drive to Yellowstone for a week and forget about the Utah part.

Some day I want to fly out to Las Vegas or Denver and rent a Jeep
Cherokee for a week and go prowling around the badlands or high country
on the 4WD roads. You definately don't want to take your own car on
some of those roads! (It's kind of funny to go into trip planning
software and tell it you want to go from Aspen Colorado to Crested
Butte. Some of the local roads it will try to send you down over the
Elk Mountains are barely passible by horse.)

Best regards,
Bob