The last few months everyone has been concerned about the cost of fuel and we are often asked if it affects our travels. The answer is yes. Our motorhome's fuel tank holds 150 gallons of diesel fuel and we usually fill up when the needle shows 1/4 tank remaining. At that point we need 120 gallons and at $3 a gallon the fill up cost us $360, but the good thing is that 120 gallons will take us about a thousand miles. Our Honda CR-V has recently been taking about $40 of fuel at fill up time and that is good for over 300 miles.

But RVers and especially fulltime RVers can easily control fuel cost. We are more concerned about people who live in houses and have to drive long distances to get to work, drop the kids off at school and travel to visit family. One of my sons drives about 45 miles to work and the same distance returning home. That works out to about 450 miles a week and about $60 a week for gas and his wife probably spends $40 in gas going and returning from work. Another son drives to another town with his medical practice, to a hospital and to an out of town clinic, while his wife drives to her school, takes their children to their school, plus family activities. So working people and families have a hard time controlling fuel cost while retired people and fulltimers can easily control their cost.

In an average year we drive the motorhome 12,000 miles and drive the CR-V another 15,000 miles. Our plans for this next year will have us driving the motorhome 6,500 miles and the CR-V 12,000 miles. So even with the much higher cost of fuel our total fuel bill for next year will be about the same as an average year.

Lets take the example of a family taking a long vacation or a snowbird couple going south for the winter and both plan to drive 3,000 miles in a RV getting 8 miles per gallon. For our example we'll say fuel last year cost $2 a gallon and now it is $3 a gallon. In 3,000 miles the RV will use 375 gallon of fuel or $375 more than a year ago. Compared to the cost of RVs, trucks and automobiles, campground fees and medical cost, that $375 is not a lot of money.

There are several ways we plan to save on fuel cost. By driving the motorhome slower it gets better fuel mileage. Dropping the speed from 65 mph to 58 mpg gives us about a half of mile per gallon better fuel economy. We are planning more direct routes instead of zip-zagging across the country and figure that will cut about 30% of our motorhome mileage. By traveling slow and staying in an area longer we don't use as much fuel. This summer we spent 40 days in Michigan and never had to fill the motorhome's fuel tank once we arrived in that state.

Staying longer is a campground not only saves on fuel, it saves on campground fees. We have family and doctors in Louisville, Kentucky so we go there often and usually stay a month or longer. The KOA Kampground charges $32 a night (after 10% discount) or $325 a month plus electric. Stopping nightly at that type of campgrounds would cost $960 a month whereas staying a month cost about $400.

Several times a week we drive to local restaurants to eat and usually average ten miles each way. By eating in restaurants one time a week less we save driving the CR-V twenty miles a week and also save money by eating at home.

Many people have told me they planned for years to go fulltime but now that fuel prices have risen so much they have decided to forgo fulltiming. What a shame. Fulltiming is a great lifestyle and the cost can be controlled.