Smoky Mountain RV Parks and Camping
The other day I was talking to an old friend I hadn't seen in several years. She told me that she had gotten laid off from work back in April and had been unable to find any work in her associated field....real estate. We all know about that story. Her husband is still employed so they are able to get by, but any extras were out of the question. I asked about their two children and she said they were doing fine, but they were a little disappointed because they couldn't afford a vacation this past summer.
I asked my friend if she remembered what our families did for vacation every year when we were growing up. She started laughing hysterically. "My kids would never go for that!" "They want cable TV and a swimming pool." Apparently, my friend had not stayed connected to her roots or the outdoors. I got her reminiscing about our childhood camping trips and soon we were laughing so hard I started getting cramps. We decided to plan a camping trip for the spring, with her family and mine, just like old times.
We started with the minimal basics. Tents, sleeping bags and coolers, which we already had stuffed back somewhere in the carport. What we don't have we'll borrow from friends and family. Other items we might want to take are flashlights, First Aid Kit, Life Jackets, Fishing rods, batteries, lighters, soap, towels, toilet paper, mosquito repellant and trash bags.
After searching the web for campsites in the Smoky Mountains, we found that most of them only charged $20 a day or less. We're planning on leaving on a Thursday morning and coming back on a Sunday morning. Let's see...two tents each at $20 a day comes to...$120 each! Great! Oh yeah, that also includes use of the bathhouse, the swimming pool, DSL and wireless, fire rings, grills and picnic tables.
Now for activities....We went to the Chamber of Commerce websites for the various mountain towns we would be staying near. Boy, did we hit the jackpot! We found free museums to visit, locations of waterfalls and fishing areas in state parks to visit, and natural and historical sites to visit with free admission. We also found a river rafting and tubing location near our campsite. For only $4 you can rent a tube and enjoy floating down the river for a 2 hour ride! That's only $20 per family....Yes!
Okay, let's talk about food now. We all know how to grill hot dogs and hamburgers. We all know how to make a lunch meat sandwich, or peanut butter and jelly. We can take powdered milk for cereal and refill drink bottles with water. We'll all have to put our heads together and come up with creative ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nothing extravagant, we should budget $150 per family.
We live about 4 hours from the Smoky Mountains. Gas prices have gone down, but we should still budget $120 for gas. We will be doing quite a bit of sightseeing. So, let's add up what we have so far.
Campsite -- $120
Tubing -- $ 20
Food -- $150
Gas -- $120
Miscellaneous --$ 90
= $500 for a 4 day - 3 night camping trip
If we save $20 a week until May, we'll have our $500 each for the trip. We may not need the extra $90, but it's always good to take along a little emergency cash. If we eat sensibly, we may not use all of our allotted food money. We could actually come back home with an extra $100 in our pocket!
Know what I like most about this idea? I'll be getting my teenagers involved. This plan will be presented to them so they can see our budget for the trip. They will be asked to come up with ideas for meals and to select places they would like to visit that have free admission. By knowing how much money we have to spend, and by knowing this is not a souvenir shopping trip, they can learn how to budget money and how to enjoy life without spending a lot of money...because the best things in life are free!
