Road trips are great. Road trips in foreign countries are an adventure. In this time-lapse video, travelers make the drive from Quito, high in the Ecuadorian mountains, to the coast. It’s amazing to see the climate and topography change as the trip takes them from an elevation 9,350 feet down to sea level. The only things we’re still curious about are the snacks that they packed for the ride!
Road trip plans foiled by rising gas prices
Just as spring and summer road trip plans are being made, gas prices are on the rise. That’s no big news, as we reported the same thing about this time last year. This year, though, gas prices are beginning their annual climb earlier than ever with potentially bad news on the horizon for road trippers making plans right now.
In an interview with the Buffalo News, Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, said, “it’s pretty rough. One word can sum it up: ‘ouch.’ It’s going to be a nasty year for gas prices.”
GasBuddy reports gas prices around the United States, assesses what drives the price of fuel, and offers helpful tips on getting the best fuel economy. This week, Gas Buddy reports a national average of $3.63 per gallon of regular gas, with an average of $3.92 and a high of $4.19 in New York City. In Santa Barbara, California, the situation is worse with an average of $4.40, peaking to $4.79 at the highest station, well before road trip season gets going in full stride. The early rise in gas prices has motorists wondering why.
“This year, the price increases are really based on what’s happening in the world oil market, the crude market,” said Wally Smith, a vice president with AAA, explaining to the Buffalo News, “You get around $4, people really start adjusting driving behaviors.”
So what can we do to prepare for $5.00 per gallon gas?
Moneycrashers, an online source dedicated to developing a community of people who try to make financially sound decisions, suggests that those thinking about buying a car might consider a more fuel-efficient vehicle. At $3.00/gal the added expense of a green car makes owning one more for super eco-aware drivers. At $5.00/gal, the math works.
But saving in other areas to offset the price of fuel, often areas directly affected by the price of fuel itself, can help too. Homes heated by fuel oil will see an increase in costs so finding alternative ways to heat your home is a good idea.
Food will go up in price so we can save money by starting a home garden. Moneycrashers even suggests keeping chickens, starting a beehive, growing your own sprouts, or learning how to forage for nuts.
If that sounds a bit extreme, consider other methods to save on food like buying products in bulk, cooking more at home, and eating out less.
“Food prices really surged at the end of 2011, which isn’t good news to consumers,” said USDA food economist Richard Volpe, in Business Week. “Costs this year will rise as much as 4.5 percent for meat products and baked goods.”
All good reasons why cutting back in areas related and affected by rising fuel prices can leave room in the budget for a decent road trip. Online tools to help manage expenses and predict the price of a road trip are also available.
The website Cost2Drive built a galculator, a fun and easy tool to help travelers budget for road trips, because, as they put it, “the carefree days of jumping in the car with no regard to costs are long gone.”The easy-to-use online tool calculates the price of gas from point A to point B based on current gas prices along the way and even throws in carbon footprint data to consider.
So while we may not be able to do anything about the price of gas, we can control expenses in other areas, leaving room for road trip dreams to blossom.
Flickr photo by photopaige
Talking your way into or out of a speeding ticket
Do you know why I pulled you over? It’s the question you hate to hear on a road trip and there is no right answer. In most cases, you know very well why you’ve been pulled over: you were driving too fast. But is it best to immediately admit it and apologize; play dumb and say something like, ‘I’m not sure, was I going to fast?’, make an excuse for why you were speeding, or go the denial route and tell the officer you have no idea why you were pulled over?
On a recent family road trip, I was pulled over just fifteen minutes away from my destination, after a seven hour drive with two toddlers raising hell in the backseat. I was frazzled and just couldn’t wait to get there. The officer asked me the obligatory question that all highway patrolmen in the U.S. seem to ask and I froze. My mind processed his query as though it were rhetorical and didn’t require a response.
“Do YOU know why I pulled you over,” he repeated.
I took stock of the situation and blurted out a response.”Well, we’ve been in the car all day and my kids have been driving me crazy, asking, ‘are we there yet?’ in fifteen minute increments,” I explained. “I just wanted to get there.”
The officer claimed I was going 70 in a 40. I was caught in a speed trap- a short little stretch of road where the limit dips down drastically for no apparent reason. It was a busy four lane highway and there were no shops or homes in sight. Just a reduced speed limit.
I should admit here that I’m no scofflaw. But on highways, I usually drive about 5-10 m.p.h. over the limit, and quickly lose patience with people who drive in the left lane at or below the speed limit. Somehow, the idea that the left lane is for passing seems to be lost on an increasing number of drivers in the U.S. And don’t even get me started on people who are driving slowly in the far left lane and then, when you pass them, their head is staring down at an electronic device.
As the officer went back to his patrol car, I was pretty sure he was going to give me a ticket, but thought he might reduce it to 55 or 60. Those hopes were soon squashed as he came back and handed me a ticket for the full Monty, 30 over the limit. D’oh.
My wife, who once sided with a cop who gave me a ticket for going 42 in a 30, scolded me for not answering the police officer’s- do you know why- question on the first try.
“I thought it was a rhetorical question!” I said, repeating my lame defense.
“The police don’t ask rhetorical questions,” she said. “He might have given you a break if you’d at least said something.”
Maybe so. But maybe not. What do you say when you get caught speeding?
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[flickr image via Highway Patrol Images]
Six things NOT to do when renting an RV
Forget your trailer park misconceptions: If you’re planning a long haul road trip, either in the U.S. or abroad, renting an RV may be your most cost-effective way to travel.
At least that’s what my husband and I found when we took a 24-foot-long campervan through the South and North islands of New Zealand last fall. Not only did we have more freedom to go where we wanted without waiting for buses or trains, we saved money on eating out – and had fun meeting other travelers at our campsite each night.
RVing does have its pitfalls, however, and we noticed plenty of them on our week-long trip. Here’s a few things that could inject a sour note into your open road opus:
Rent the biggest vehicle you can find. You might see this trip as a time to indulge your Big Rig fantasies. But you’re much better off renting a smaller campervan that handles well, particularly if you’re going anywhere that involves twisty roads or mountain overpasses. Smaller RVs are also better on stretches of open highway, where strong winds can push your vehicle around the road.
Ignore vehicle briefings. Our campervan came with a DVD that cut off halfway through the instructions. “We’ll figure it out,” said my husband, who was eager to hit the road. Ha. Those 15 minutes we saved by leaving the parking lot early were nothing compared to the hour it took us to figure out how to dump out the sewage. Never again.Pack too much stuff. Most campervans have elaborate storage systems, with cubby drawers, hidden compartments and spaces under seats to place your things. Which you’ll need, because if you don’t put your hiking shoes away, they will become projectile missiles during the next curve in the road.
We passed several RVs that looked stuffed to the brim, with stressed-out people in the driver’s seat. Only bring the basics; most RVs come with all of the dishes, silverware, bedding and towels that you’ll need.
Fail to check your surroundings. The scene unfolded like one from a Chevy Chase movie: Our mouths screamed “Nooooo” as a neighbor pulled out of his campsite with his RV electrical cord still hooked up to the outlets. The resulting noises were not pleasant. If you’re absent-minded, write your debarkation routine on a slip of paper that you review each morning.
Annoy your neighbors. RVers are an early bunch, with many hitting the road before dawn. You’ll be the star of the holiday park if you invoke MI6 agent stealth and leave noiselessly, without rattling all of the recycling bins (you know who you are).
Once you’ve selected your campsite for the night, it’s also considered poor etiquette to walk too close to your neighbor’s vehicle. Saying hello at the communal BBQ pit is fine, lurking outside someone else’s windows isn’t. And when that van is rocking, definitely don’t go knocking.
Plan a packed itinerary. Sure, you could take 72 hours to criss-cross Arizona. But where’s the fun in that? Plan two-day or three-day stops at RV parks so you have time to leave the vehicle and see the sights. Otherwise, you might as well fly.
Travel writer Chris Gray Faust writes about Value Luxury Vacations on her website, Chris Around The World.
Detroit to Seattle by highway in five minutes
When I was in high school and college, some of my fondest experiences were the road trips that I used to take with my friend Chris. On one, we drove from Ann Arbor into Ontario to see the Weakerthans at the Trasheteria in Guelph and then moved onward to Toronto and our favorite hostel in Kensington Market.
Trips like this are the foundation on which I built my travel career, and now that I’m older and living in the city I rarely spend time in the car.
As for Chris, he just took up a job in Seattle and is still hitting the pavement hard. The above video documents his journey from Detroit all the way to Washington as he made his final move, all composed of still frames over the 2,300 miles. Keep on driving, my friend.