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Originally Posted by wingfoot321
Grant,
Just curious. Did you keep any kind of log on expenses? Per day, per month, per trip or whatever.
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Gas for the entire trip cost Cdn$3560 (US$2848) for 21000km (13000 miles). We averaged 11.5 mpg (US gallon). Gas costs ranged from US$1.83 per gallon in Owatona, MN to US$2.61 in Glenallen, AK. Around Anchorage the cost was $2.15 to $2.20. In Canada the cheapest gas we found was in Maple Ridge, BC (80.9¢ per litre) which is about US$2.45 per gallon. In northern BC and Yukon gas ranged from 96¢ to $1.08 per litre which is about US$2.90 to US$3.26 per US gallon.
RV parks (all prices $US) ranged from $16 to $37, with the more expensive ones being in Alaska. We mostly stayed in private parks with full services, and price seems to vary more by location than the quality of the park. In the past we've always stayed in public campgrounds, but it's hard to find them with anything more than pit toilets once you get north of Edmonton.
Some of the parks we stayed at (all prices $US):
-In Beiseker, Alberta (north of Calgary) there is a nice municipal park with services. I can't remember the price, but it was very reasonable.
-Aspen Beach provincial park south of Edmonton was nice - an unserviced site was $17 - nice bathrooms. We stayed in 2 other Alberta provincial parks, but were disappointed to find that they locked the showers/flush toilets at night. What's that all about??? If you arrive late or leave early you only have access to the outhouses.
-Whitecourt Lions campground in Whitecourt, BC ($16) - nice treed sites with water and electrical
-Pioneer RV park in Whitehorse ($18) for fully serviced sites on gravel. No trees, but nice washrooms and laundry and free wireless internet.
-Tok RV village in Tok, AK ($32) nice sites with full services and nice bathrooms. The price was a bit of a shock, but we paid more later in the trip.
-In Seward there is a municipal campground on the water with water and electric at the site and flush toilets and showers. I think we paid about $12 for an unserviced site.
-Anchorage RV park in Anchorage (of course!) is nice. It has full services and nice bathrooms for $32.
-In Homer we stayed at the Ocenview RV park. It was one of the more expensive at $37 per night, but it's right in town and on the water. Bathrooms and laundry were nice, and free internet conection. You can also camp on the Homer Spit, but it's really exposed to the weather.
-In Denali we stayed at the Denali RV Park a few miles north of the park road. It was $30 per night with full services and nice bathrooms.
-In Fairbanks we stayed at the Chena Marina campground for $36 per night. It's a nice park with free fishing in the pond, free movies to borrow, a TV/games/reading room, free pastries and coffee in the morning, nice bathrooms and laundry. One of our favourites.
-The Cassiar RV park in Kitwanga, BC is nice. Water, sewer and electrical for about $17.
-Canada West RV park just west of Revelstoke was another good full service campground and free wireless internet. I don't have the price, but it was reasonable and included a pass to the municipal swimming pool in town which is a beautiful indoor facility with a water slide.
-The most expensive park in Canada was in Osoyoos, BC. I think it was close to US$37, but it was late and we really wanted a shower. This is where I learned an important lesson - NEVER TRUST ANYONE OTHER THAN YOUR SPOUSE TO DIRECT YOU INTO A SITE. The guy working there insisted that he help me back into the site while my wife registered and paid. He only watched one side of the trailer while the other side came within an inch of being creased by a picnic shelter. It was only by luck that the trailer wasn't damaged. If I had gone back 2" more it would have damaged the awning support. This is the first and last time I'll ever trust anyone else to direct me in. He seemed to have the attitude that everyone needed help backing into a site. I've never had a problem backing in anywhere - I grew up on a farm and backing up a trailer is second nature to me. I didn't appreciate him assuming that I couldn't do it.
Of the 60 nights we were away we paid for RV parks 33 nights. We spent about 7 nights with friends along the way. Other times we stopped at rest stops along the road or slept at Wal-mart or Fred Meyers stores in cities. Some people look down on camping at Wal-mart, but they're free, easy to find, free, safe, free, well lit and if it's a 24 hour store you have access to bathrooms at any time. And did I mention free? We paid a total of about US$700 for the 33 nights we stayed in parks. We never booked ahead and were never turned away because a park was full. Some parks charge for showers which can add up when there are 6 of us. We tried to avoid those parks if possible. Some were only 25¢ for 2 minutes which was okay, but others charge a couple of dollars.
Internet Access - we took a wireless laptop (iBook) with us. About half of the private RV parks had service of some kind, but about half of them charged for it - we never paid. In most towns you can get access at a library, sometimes wireless. We also found that just by driving through a residential neighbourhood we could usually find an unprotected signal - later we read in the paper that this is illegal. It was often easier to find wireless internet than cell phone coverage.
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