This may be a bit insane

In April I bought a Prius.  This, in and of itself, likely isn’t cause to question my mental health, but what it’s led to this summer may indicate that I have, indeed, gone batcrap-crazy.

See, for several years, I’ve been driving a V8 Mountaineer that averages 16 mpg.  That resulted in a lot of skipped trips and vacations simply because the travel costs were too much.  A $400-$600 monthly gas bill and fills that sometimes hit $80 will have that effect.

So when it came time to get a new car, I went to the opposite extreme.  I took my first trip in years to the Keys thanks to it only costing $25 to get there in the Prius.

After that I started making plans to drive up to Minnesota along with my mother in August.  This is an annual trip she makes and I’ve wanted to go along for years in order to visit relatives and show my kids where I grew up. 

So I put that trip into MapQuest and it came up with an estimated fuel cost of $318.56.  Damn.  I can’t get a plane ticket for one person for that much.

That got me thinking … or not thinking, depending on how this turns out …

Back in the ‘70s, my parents took me on a couple roadtrips in an old Chevy Van.  Massive roadtrips.  Like, frickin’-everywhere roadtrips.  I was pretty young, but the bits and pieces I remember are some of the coolest memories from my childhood. 

I’d always wished I could show my kids something similar, so I started playing with the map to see what a couple detours would add to the trip.  Just a little bit, to show the kids some of the amazing things there are to see in this country.

I set an initial budget for gas of $600 – the upper-end of what I’ve been spending each month on gas for the Mountaineer.  That got me to Vegas, up to Yellowstone, then back to visit Minnesota and home.  But Vegas is so close to San Francisco and Yellowstone is just not that far from Seattle (two of my favorite cities).  Well, “close” and “not so far” relatively … relative to already having driven from the other side of the country, that is.

The most recent plan for the trip looks like the map above.  The estimated gas cost varies day-to-day as prices change, but it’s around $650 at the current national average or $750 as MapQuest calculates for the average price along each part of the route.

The difficulty with this trip would be having both kids along – my son and daughter do not get along.  They bicker.  They annoy each other.  They do it deliberately, at length, and not nearly cleverly enough to be entertaining.  One day of driving to Minnesota I could handle, but both of them in the car for the 120-hours of driving involved in this trip … well, one or both of them would wind up buried in the desert somewhere around El Paso.

How to handle this?  Well, my daughter graduated from high school this year.  I think this makes an awesome start to a family tradition.  I take her this year and then in five years when my son graduates I can take him.  A sort of last, big thing to do together before they head for college and make lives of their own.

Also, they’re interested in different things.  The girl’s gotten all outdoorsy and adventurous lately; the boy-child’s obsessed with video games, but who knows what he’ll like in five years.  Taking them separately I can tailor each trip to what they like. 

So the plan for this year’s trip currently looks like this:

Twenty-four days, twenty-five states, 129 driving hours, 8000 miles, two people … in a Prius.

Batcrap, I’m telling you.