Trip in Remission

All,

Thanks for your patience. I had to return back to my base of operations in Polson, MT to perform a thorough check on the BBB as well as take care of some local business crisis (mold in the rental!). It was a good week to reassess my travel plans.

First - unless one is REALLY camping and unplugging from the grid and Internet, traveling in a fuel inefficient vehicle from coffee house to coffee house isn't cheap. At all.

Second - it is crucial to drive to a place and then really shift into local (i.e. bike) transport. This begs the question - where can one simply shut down and plug in. Well, during my final days at the corporation, I'd have to go to a city and stay at a friend's place, or stay at a KOA. I am lucky to be blessed with many friends, but I feel guilty about consuming your mojo (i.e. power) too long and KOA aren't as cheap as I imagined - $30/night is better than a hotel, but not exactly the depth of low rent I was hoping for. After I leave the corporation, I can camp in place and start hiking in earnest at camping rates - hopefully asymptotically approaching, but likely not touching, $0.

Third - I must contain and plan my itinerary better or get a more fuel efficient vehicle. Wandering hither and yon at 13-14mpg is simply too expensive. $90/day was my average for a week of travel in the mountainous west. I have a feeling that traveling like this is quite doable in the urban wilderness of the East, but it gets pretty pricing to do a lot of travel between stops. Toyota Sienna or Tacoma look nice and will likely fit into my future business better than a VW van.

More to ponder. I hope to drive out to Portland next week . . . depending on what the other mechanic tells me about the VW. Seems there were a few other problems. . . .