EXPENSES
In giving a table of our expenses, it is unimportant to give in detail the amount of the tips to porters or chambermaids, or to state what the hotel bill was in each place. That depends upon the individual—whether you care to have more or less expensive accommodations, or to what extent you care to indulge in “extras.”
We paid (for two) from three to six dollars a night for room and bath, but in all cases there were cheaper ones to be had. The matter of restaurant bills is also a personal item. In giving the cost of hotels, I have included breakfast and dinner. The lunches are listed as “extras.” The garage expenses included storage and washing the car. A night’s storage varied from $1.50 in the East to fifty cents in the West. The cost of washing the car was from $1.00 to $2.50, also depending on the locality. Every man knows how often he wants his car cleaned. One New York man that we met in Minnesota told us that his car had not been washed since he left. It looked it! This, by the way, was the only New York license that we saw west of Chicago. Rather remarkable!
Our total mileage was 4154 miles—thirty-three running days. We used 338 gallons of gas (21 to 40 cents), $99.80; sixty-one quarts of medium oil (15 to 35 cents), $12.80; garage, storage and cleaning, $28.50; hotels and boat fares for seven weeks for two, $256; extras (laundry, lunches, postcards, postage, fruit, etc.), $51.38; tips, $50; expenses in Yellowstone Park (including entry fee for car, $7.50), $100; work on car in service stations (looking over, oiling, etc.), $64.24; D. & C. boat from Cleveland to Detroit, for car, $14.50. Total, $677.22, or about $13.50 a day for fifty days (for two people).
Additional expenses were adjustment on new tire (never used), $35; cost of shipping car across desert, $196.69; railroad tickets (including drawing-room, $17.75), $72.50. Total, $304.19.
We might eliminate the new tire adjustment of $35, and if we had driven across Nevada it would easily have been two hundred dollars less, but we should doubtless have had repair bills to balance that sum and more. Except for gas, oil, and garage expenses, the rest can be easily adjusted, according to the individual, and lessened considerably. And remember that includes a war-tax on many things.
This trip can be taken in perfect comfort by two people for thirteen dollars a day, including everything, which means that you are traveling as well as living. Not bad, considering the “H. C. of L.” today!
THE END