Saving Money on Campgrounds: Two Months on the Road

We have spent less money on campgrounds in the last 59 days than we had planned.
We budgeted $25/night (x 59 days = $1475). At this point we have spent $438 and saved $1037.

• $80 (Fort Monroe, VA) - 4 days
  
• $100 (Lake Fairfax, VA) - 10 days
  
• $200 (Benbrook Lake, TX)- 10 days
  
• $58 (Oklahoma City, OK) - 2 days

We have dry camped (no hookups) a lot more than we thought we would. We spent:

• 1 night out side our former home moving into the Roadrunner (Fairfax, VA)
• 9 nights our Pam's sister/brother-in-law's place in Maynardville, TN
  
• 2 nights in a WallMart parking lot (Forrest City, AR & Livingston, IL)
  
• 19 nights at a 4H campground with fees were paid by the agency where we did NOMADS volunteering (Pontiac, IL)
  
• 2 nights in the driveway at our son's place here in Croswell, MI.

We knew we would do some dry camping and it is easier than we anticipated. Especially if you can use facilities where you are staying. We learned that dumping the tanks are a fact of life. It is what it is--taking care of business. Kind of like picking up after you take the pet for a walk only not exactly. It is obviously more convenient to have full hook ups, but if we don't have electricity and water or sewer, we are fine for a few days.

At our last campground our neighbor let us borrow his Blue Boy tote tank. We bought a ball hitch and used the Blue Boy and emptied the tanks twice. It was far more convenient than packing up, raising the jacks and driving the RV over to the dump station a few hundred yards away.

On the other hand, the Blue Boy costs $200 and we had to find a place to store it in the basement. Since we keep 'thinning out' our basement with empty bins and putting our chairs in our Honda when we travel, we have plenty of room. So we got one. At this rate, the Blue Boy will pay for itself in a few weeks.

On a different subject -- looks like we will be here for a few days in Eastern Michigan near Port Huron. We are looking forward to seeing some old friends and family. Last night we had a very nice time seeing Meghan and meeting her family. Nice folks.

More on that in another edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles. Thanks for checking in. Hope your summer is going well.