Now we’d decided to stay in Buena Vista until Thursday that
would be another week’s budget and so far we were on target, even after going
out for the first time last night! So, how had we done it? Well, stayed in a cheap campsite for six
nights and driven a lot less mileage for starters. This morning we tried to work out a formula
to try and keep within budget every week.
Filling the tank of the RV cost us roughly $80 a time and that gave us
about 400 miles on the road. We decided
to try and limit ourselves to 800 miles per week, so $160 in gas. There are cheaper campsites if you look for
them, if we try to limit a stay at $25 per night that sets a budget of $175 per
week on accommodation. Those two things
total $335, leaving $115 for groceries and….. well, everything else. It was always going to be tight but by
limiting how far we progress every week it should be achievable.
One of the places nearby the Visitor's Centre had told us about was
Natural Bridge, a point of interest where limestone rock was formed into a
large arch – you see how it got the name.
I was keen for an opportunity to fully test my mended bicycle gears and
this was only a short drive away and was sure to be visible from some sort of
cycle trail, right? Wrong. This natural historic feature is within a gorge
and those cheeky Virginians have fenced it off so that they can charge $8 per
person for a short walk in to look at it!
I know, the money is all probably for a good cause like maintaining the
site and paying someone to clean the public toilets (or restrooms as they’d be
called) but this is the kind of decision we must make. Okay, so the bridge is meant to be one of the
seven wonders of the natural world but we’d nearly driven through the area
oblivious to this fact. Not wanting to
ruin the budget when we were doing so well we turned away from the Natural
Bridge and went for a lovely bike ride on the Monacan trail opposite instead. This time we took a map. There were some tough, steep slopes to ascend
but we were rewarded with stunning views across the state park.
 |
| Not one of the most stunning views... but look down there.... there's our RV! |
If the slopes were tough to go up, they did not let off
going downhill either! It was so bumpy
that some screws on Simon’s handlebars had worked loose so he was in danger of
not being able to use his brakes at all!
That slowed our descent a little but thankfully our DIY skills did
suffice when it came to tightening a few screws up!
On our return to the campsite we had a relaxing evening and
I managed to make some much-needed progress with writing this blog.
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