[Philmont] RV vs Flying

From: Susan Hamilton

        WOW. . I didn't realize I was leaving out so much information. We
are an approved Trek from Gilroy, California. Gilroy is about 30 minutes
south of San Jose and about 600 miles from Philmont.

        We have 5 Scouts and 3 Adult Leaders. We are finding that even with
the cost of gas, the overall cost seems to be lower if we drive.

        Thanks for all your input!
        Susan Hamilton

 OKay, let's look at your alternatives. As noted in other posts, you are
looking at about 1300 road miles without side trips. A typical RV gets 6MPG
or thereabouts. So that is about 217 gallons. At $5/gallon (which is
becoming likely a the rate things are going), your cost for the drive is
217*5*2 or $2170. Sothat is 8 people at $291/person.

Add to this the BSA maximum of 500 miles per day, that means two overnight
stops, probably at an RV park, so add another $70 to the total (being really
generously cheap). With a 2.5 day drive, that means you also have to
provide about 7 meals before you get there, at $4/meal/person, that takes
you to about $340/person just to get there.

Let's look at some alternatives.
Amtrak:
Train from San Jose to LA then to Raton:
With potential for child fares, AAA discount, average about $270/person
About 30 hours, so 3 meals per person at about $5/meal if you work it, so
another $15/person
Bus round trip Raton $35/person
Extra night in tent city and breakfast $15/person
Train cost: $270+15+35+15=$335/person, so slightly less cost, and no wear
and tear on RV or risk of RV breakdown.

Savings on adult stress during travel: priceless

Fly SJ to ALB/Shuttle:
Forget it, that is a heck of a lot more expensive, about $600/person Yikes!

You might want to rethink this and consider the train

Regards
Don Roberts
Fullerton, CA

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Received on Mon Jun 9 11:16:08 2008