Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway from Boone to Asheville
A slow day of overlooks, a picnic at Linville Falls and two nights in the mountains. What the whole three-day trip cost the two of…
Do we need travel insurance for a $300 weekend?
For most of our short trips, no. The few times it might make sense, what a policy would cost and what our own coverage already han…
A small summer garden and the neighbor who waters it
Six tomato plants, a row of okra and a retired neighbor with a hose. How we keep a garden alive when we're gone every few weekends…
Packing a cooler so we don't eat every meal out
Our road-trip cooler routine: what goes in, how long the ice lasts in a North Carolina May and the $46 it saves us on a typical we…
Changing the oil ourselves: $38 against $89
Wes works on diesel trucks all week, so I asked why we pay a shop to change the CR-V's oil. The supplies, the time and the real sa…
Our first state park campsite at Jones Lake
A $28 tent site an hour from home, a borrowed tent and a cooler of food. Does camping really save money for two people over forty?…
Two nights in a $79 motel on the Grand Strand in April
Myrtle Beach before summer prices kick in. How I picked an older oceanfront motel, what the room was like and what we paid in taxe…
What a tank of gas really costs per trip mile
Our CR-V gets about 31 mpg on the highway. How I figure the gas for a trip before we leave, and why I always round the price up a …
The 15-minute check Wes does before every road trip
Tire pressure, oil, wiper blades, lights and the spare nobody looks at. The checklist we keep in the glove box of our 2017 CR-V.…