Was Epic

Sunset in Brookings, OR

The final tabulation on the gas, food and lodging costs prove what we have suspected all along. That we are being held hostage by the bad guys in black oil drenched Stetsons. As we have seen from earlier observations, real-time experiments in adventurous experience, this case being the ten day intensive road/bike trip from, roughly, Seattle to Santa Cruz and back, peak season motel accommodations are expensive, food is equally costly and often of poor quality, leaving gas as the missing trifecta commodity. Here is what I found out: Nobody is giving it away. I find it amazingly appalling that we, Americans, stand by and willingly trade some mythical notion of the freedom produced by car culture for the price we pay at the pump for said freedoms. It is just the cost of travel these days we say as oil companies post record profits from our desire to get out of town, vacation and see some of the world still unpolluted by fossil fuel emissions. 

I am as guilty of this as the next guy, as the following sums will attest. It is my total gas expenditure for the trip. I failed miserably at keeping receipts that would provide accurate miles per gallon, but I think I can estimate with reasonable accuracy. Here are the totals along with my notes and comments:

I filled up Whitey’s 15.4 gallon tank 8 times over the 10 days and 2,700 miles. 

270 avg miles per day

Total fuel cost was $258.75

Lowest price per gallon was in Florence, OR @ $2.71

Highest was $4.80 in Westport, CA

Works out to $26 per day in gas

Or 10.43 cents per mile as they like to say in truck rental terms

As a result of this detailed analysis I estimate my trip mileage to be around 25 MPG

I wish I would have kept all receipts for better analysis. 

The recap of the big three; gas, food and lodging, is interesting but hardly surprising. I spent zero on accommodations, sleeping in the cozy confines of Whitey’s customized cargo area, and spending an average of $16 per day on food. Totals look thusly:

Gas: $258.75

Food: $165

Lodging: $0

Conclusions: The hybrid functionality of hauling my bike, riding almost every day, and still having the luxury of four-wheel camping, hauling clean clothes, video equipment, tools and enjoying cooking capabilities, makes this mode of travel a bargain. I challenge anyone to travel 10 days over 2,700 miles along arguably the most spectacular coastline in the world for $423.75. And while not exactly the Europe on $5 a day of a long ago, it is still a great value and truly a superb experience. 

I suppose I could build up a super duty road bike and haul a trailer to reduce the cash outlay even further, but I consider this trip's cost-benefit analysis to show a simple closing conclusion:

Was Epic.