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The race is on. For those of us with kids still in school the corner has been rounded and we are now in the home stretch. June is just around the corner and another year will be in the books. The highs and lows will all be a matter of record, and the transgressions that took place on the sports’ fields have been duly noted for columns on another day.
As we cross the finish line most of our thoughts turn to one thing, higher energy bills. No not really, well maybe for some, but what most of us are looking towards is our summer vacation. Summer vacation, that always too brief period of time that we work towards all year long.
If it works like it is supposed to, it is a recharging of your batteries. A chance to be with your family and put all of the stress of work, school, and anything else that raises your blood pressure behind you for a while. That equates to, if you’re lucky, ten days off to recuperate from 355 days of stress. A vicious cycle that never seems to end.
So where are you planning to go? The better question would probably be how are you planning to get there? Just in case you have been in seclusion for the last six months and are unaware of it, gasoline prices have gone up a tad recently and are promising to go even higher between now and summertime. Of course, just in time for when most people go on vacation.
It’s not a surprise. In fact, over the years, it has almost become a rule of thumb. Gas prices going up just before vacation time arrives. This time around though, considering how heavy we have already been hit by the gas companies, it feels like more than their usual greedy price gouging. But the gas companies wouldn’t do that to us would they?
Regardless of how bad they decide to stick it to us it is going to impact where you go no matter how you choose to get there. Plane, train, or automobile, the prices are going to be up and you just have to choose which will be the least painful to your pocket book.
I have already started hearing about people not going anywhere, all citing the high costs of travel. At a time when it costs you ten bucks just to get to the grocery store and back this might be the time to cancel your plans. But that logic could be fraught with just as many costs if you stay home, especially if you have pre-driving teenagers in your house.
As we all know, and that is those of us with the aforementioned teenagers, we parents are viewed as a taxi service. It is bad enough when they are in school, shuttling them back and forth between school and extracurricular activities. But think about the weekends during the school year. I don’t know what it is like around your house, but there is only so long they can sit around before some plan is launched to get together with their friends.
That usually means getting together to go to the movies or hang out at the mall. If you live in Pasadena, Arcadia, or Alhambra the chances are this is no big deal, if you live in Temple City you’re screwed. Now that the City no longer has a movie theatre, and no plans to get one, parents now and for generations to come are doomed to multiple commutes to those aforementioned areas for their teen’s entertainment.
We also have nothing that even resembles a mall or a consumer friendly downtown area so we are stuck having to drive. That is unless your teenagers have a bridal, nail, dentist, or noodle fetish. If they do, they will be entertained all summer long. You won’t have to drive them they can walk down Las Tunas Drive, the main drag in Temple City, and I do mean drag, where they can buy a bridal train, get their nails done, and have their teeth cleaned, before chowing down on a bowl of noodles. Oh what summertime fun for our youth.
The other thing you have to think about if you stay home is your energy costs. Once that sweltering summertime heat gets here, on goes the air conditioning and up goes your Edison bill. This year, with costs higher than they have ever been, those little needles in your meter will be whipping around like a stopwatch.
For a select few of us who happen to live with a home improvement junkie, like I do, by staying home for your vacation you are leaving open a door to Trading Spaces Land. You could end up spending your vacation time shuttling between a ladder in your kitchen and Home Depot, smelling paint fumes instead of pine trees or a sea breeze. Those gas prices are not looking too bad after thinking about these options.
So if you want to get out of Dodge which horse should you take? If you are into hiking and backpacking you don’t need to worry about it. Just allow yourself a couple of extra days and start your hike from home, problem solved.
If not, driving and flying are the two most popular modes of transportation so let’s just focus on those for the time being. Which way do you get the best bang for your buck?
I guess that depends on where you are heading. Necessity being the mother of invention the ever helpful people at the AAA have come up with a web site with what they call a
Fuel Cost
Calculator that helps you compute how much you will spend on gas getting to your vacation site.
So let’s pick some places and see how much it will cost you. If you are looking to go to Sin City, or should I say Las Vegas, and you are driving a 2006 Chevy Suburban, the round trip gas cost at this particular moment of time would cost you $126.64.
Armed with this information we now go to cheapflights.com to find the least expensive tickets available. At this time the cheapest round trip ticket would run you $65.00 plus taxes and fees. Considering how many people you can pack into a Suburban, the car wins.
Looking to go a little further? Are you a real driving fool that can’t get enough of the family being packed together into a car and driving for long distances? How about Washington DC? Now that’s a manly drive. To drive there in the same vehicle, it would cost you $1,211.20 round trip and to fly there it would be $216.00 plus taxes and fees per person round trip. If your Suburban has a full human load the car wins again, but if you are only a family of four, flying the friendly skies is definitely your ticket.
These driving prices on long distances also leave out one important factor, where do you stay while you are driving? Even if you were to attempt to camp outdoors in a tent instead of staying in motels the whole way there, you would still have food and campsite fees to contend with. Granted you would see more of the country along the way by driving, but you would have less time to tour whatever your ultimate destination is once you got there. I guess it is all in what you are looking to do and how much time you have to do it in.
The choice is yours. If you are lucky enough to get a summer vacation use it the best you can. Whether it is going to Arcadia, Las Vegas, Washington DC, or painting your kitchen. And the best part, any day you are not at work is a good one.
And if you do get stuck painting the kitchen, just remember, you always have the
Travel
Channel.
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