Eric Holen

For well over a year now, Yvette and I have been bouncing around the idea of purchasing a camping trailer. We love camping and are getting a little old for using a tent, so on the surface it seems like a good idea. We even rented a camper a couple of times and really enjoyed the comfort.

However, when I dig a little deeper into the financial side, I wonder if purchasing a camping trailer is the right decision. When we retire, we do plan on buying a trailer for traveling. My current thoughts are whether we should buy a trailer now just for camping.

We have been looking at camping trailers in the 18 – 21 foot range, which is small enough to be towed by our current SUV.

Assuming $17,000 for a new camping trailer at 10% interest for 10 years, Yvette and I would be paying out $225 a month or $2,696 annually just for the loan. On top of that, we would likely see another $100 monthly or $1200 annually for insurance, storage, maintenance, and the registration. Combined, those costs come out to $3,896 annually.

Now, after a little research, I found that I can rent comparable campers in Austin for under $125 per day. That means to just break even, I would have to use our camper for 31 days a year versus renting.

In the last 12 months, Yvette and I have rented a camping trailer for 7 days and tent camped for an additional 2 days. That’s only 9 days which is still way off from the 31 days needed to break even.

Granted, there may be conveniences to owning our own camping trailer, but financially, it doesn’t seem to make sense at least for now.

Yvette and I just celebrated our 13^th anniversary, which makes it a lucky number.  But then 12 was a lucky number and 14 will also be a lucky number.  How did we celebrate?  We went camping for 4 nights in a rented 28’ fifth wheel trailer.

It was Yvette’s idea to go camping as a way for us to save money while getting us both out of the house and away from work.  At 4 nights, it was the longest or tied for the longest camping trip that we have taken.  Yvette was right, the trip relaxed us.  We played games, walked and read books, all while enjoying great weather.  Yvette was right.  Getting away from work, at least for me, was a great way to recharge myself.

One of the interesting things that Yvette I started doing since our 10^th anniversary, is reminiscing over the past and quizzing each other on fun facts.

Here are two of the questions that came up this trip.

Question:  Which is the only state, in the contiguous 48 states, that Yvette and I have eaten just one meal?

Answer:  Utah.  Yvette and I crossed the state line from West Wendover Nevada into Wendover Utah to eat lunch at a Subway restaurant.

Question:  How many different barbecue restaurants have we tried in Austin and the surrounding areas?  Chain restaurants, with multiple locations, only count once.

Answer: We came up with 11; we must like barbecue.  One of the 11 we recorded that day when we tried a place in Elgin.

Finally, I am not the greatest when trying to come up with a gift for Yvette.  In addition, this year we agreed to keep the gifts under $50 to save money.  I surprised Yvette and myself this year.  In December, Yvette took me on a cruise for my 40^thbirthday, but it meant that she was missing out on attending a Wynonna concert.  Well, about a month ago, I found out that Wynonna would be playing at Billy Bob’s in May and the tickets were only $35 each.  Yvette opened the card with the tickets on the drive-up to the campground.  When she screamed, I knew that I had done good this year.

Yvette and I have been tent campers for almost 12 years now.  For the last few years, we have gone tent camping with a great group of friends two or more times a year.  However, as we get older, the thought of camping in a trailer starts to sound like a better option.  We had been looking at different trailers, but then started to wonder whether trailer camping would be as fun as tent camping.  So we decided to rent a trailer and try it out a few times before making a purchase decision.

While looking through Craig’s List, we came across a couple who are trying to sell their trailer, but were renting it in the interim.  The only downside is that they would only set it up on one of three parks around Granger Lake outside of Taylor, Texas.  After giving it a few seconds thought, Yvette and I decided to try out the rental.

Out of the three parks that were available, we ended up selecting Taylor Park because it had several hiking trails and two old bridges.

On Friday (Mar 5), we packed up all of our camping equipment, except our tent, and drove north towards Taylor.  For lunch, we stopped at Louie Mueller Barbeque in Taylor.  A friend from the Kyle Fire Department had recommended the location.  We walked in, grabbed some menus and sat down.  That was the clue to the “waitress” that we had never been there before.  She directed us to the counter so that we could get in line.  We were just in time because by the time we got our food, the line stretched to the door.  While the BBQ was very tender, it wasn’t our favorite because it lacked flavor.  In addition, their sauce did not add much.

After lunch, Yvette and continued our drive through Taylor to the Taylor Park campground in Granger.  We checked in at the gate then drove to our site. The site that we selected had a great view of the lake as well as quick access to the trails.

At exactly 2:00 PM as scheduled, David, the trailer’s owner, drove up with a 28 foot 5th wheel camping trailer.  We were impressed.  Not only was it big, but the inside and outside looked great.  David had the trailer setup in less than 30 minutes and then walked us through, explaining the features.

Once David drove away, Yvette and I proceeded to unpack our SUV and move into the trailer.  Once we were moved in, Yvette and I took a walking tour of the campgrounds.

We walked down one of the feeder trailers that led directly from our site to the walking trail.  From there, we explored the beach and then Hoxie Bridge, one of two old bridges in the park.

After making a full walking trip around the park, we returned to our camping trailer to settle in for dinner.  After a dinner of fajitas, we stepped outside and sat around a camp fire, one of the first that we had to build ourselves.  In the past, we had left campfire building in the capable hands of our friend Dallas, so it was a challenge and learning experience for us.  When it got too cold, we returned to the trailer, played some games, and crawled into our warm bed.

On Saturday morning, I got up before Yvette and baked, not fried, hash browns in the oven while cooking eggs on the stove.  We spent the day relaxing, reading outside while listening to the sounds of nature, playing games, and watching some movies.  Then we took a drive around Taylor and Granger, and even stopped at Granger Dam. 

In the afternoon, I took a 90 minute hike along the Comanche Bluff Trail, which included a view of the Friendship Bridge, the second of the two older bridges in the park.  I had to cut the hike short when I ran into a lot of mud.  On my next trip, I hope to hike the entire 3.2 miles one way.  For dinner, Yvette baked steaks because we forgot to buy charcoal.

The next morning, I fixed Yvette some “camping” French toast, which means that it was regular French toast without our sugar-free syrup, which we did not pack.  Following breakfast, we played some more games and then started packing and cleaning up.  At 2:00 PM sharp, David showed up to pick up the trailer.

Yvette and I agreed that while we are not giving up tent camping, we love trailer camping.  Waking up in a comfortable bed versus and air mattress that had lost some pressure in the night was nice.  Getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without having to put on sneakers was also a benefit.  Given the March weather, it was nice to being able to enjoy the campgrounds and then retreat to the warm trailer when it either started raining a little or got colder.

We are already planning another camping trailer trip in April for our anniversary.  What’s interesting is that renting the trailer had an unintended revelation.  Renting a trailer seems like it might be a lot less expensive then actually buying and maintaining our own trailer.  We’ll have to see if that affects our purchasing decision.

Earlier this month, Yvette treated me and herself to a 4-day cruise aboard the Carnival Ecstasy for my 40th birthday. Like last year, Yvette let me decide what I wanted to do and I chose the cruise to celebrate. This was our sixth cruise, our fourth time traveling to Cozumel, our third time departing from Galveston, our second 4-day cruise, and our first cruise in December. Except for the weather, I could not have been happier with the cruise.

I brought the idea up the idea of a cruise to Yvette in August and when we found a deal for $269 per person, she was sold. It had been almost 20 months since our previous cruise. I was little nervous about it only being a 4-day cruise, given that our last four cruises had been 7-day affairs. While I won’t give up the longer cruises, one of the great things that Yvette and I agreed about with the shorter cruise is that there was a lot less stress from planning and packing, giving us more time to enjoy ourselves.

The cruise departed on a Thursday. That morning, Yvette and I tucked the “kids” into their cages and drove to Galveston. The drive wasn’t bad, but we had a late start because we were so relaxed. We still made it to Galveston with plenty of time to spare. It was cold that day and we were bundled up in our coats. Yvette made a comment about whether I thought Carnival would have any Christmas directions, which I thought was funny. Since this was our sixth cruise, we received our gold Sail & Sign cards which serve as our access to the ship, onboard charge card, and room key. When we reach our 10th cruise, we’ll graduate to platinum cards. Carnival was taking the H1N1 virus seriously and had short questionnaires for guests to fill out before they boarded. We probably spent an hour working our way through the security checkpoint, registration and on to the ship, but its part of the fun and it only builds the anticipation.

We got on the ship and immediately admired the Christmas decorations in the main lobby. Then we headed off to our room to drop our stuff before exploring. The ship had gone through a refit within the last several months and we were very pleased with how she looked. While the bathroom wasn’t as big as what we had on the Carnival Conquest, they added lighting which opened it up. The room had a flat panel television while the bed had a thick comforter that felt so soft. We couldn’t unpack any luggage because it had not arrived so, after admiring the room, we headed off to explore the ship.

While the ship has the same over design as Carnival’s other Fantasy-class ships, it’s still fun to explore its differences. With the recent refit of the ship, Carnival added large fake palm trees on the Lido deck, giant water slides on the back of the ship, an adult’s only quiet area with a hot tub, and a 9-hole miniature golf course. Yvette and I agreed that the ship looked great.

On the first day, even before the ship leaves port, we had been required to participate in a life boat drill. Each cruise we would take pictures of ourselves in our life jackets during the drill. However, Carnival has replaced the life boat drill with a safety briefing that did not require us to bring our life jackets to our muster station. After the drill, Yvette headed back to the cabin to wait for the luggage and unpack while I continued exploring and taking pictures.

One of the surprises on any cruise is who your dinner mates will be. On this cruise, we ate dinner with Mark, Joey his partner, Nancy who is Mark’s employee, and Lisa who is Nancy’s daughter. This was their first cruise. Nancy was going for her birthday and had brought along her daughter. Mark was going just because Nancy went, and he brought along Joey. This was the best group of dinner mates that Yvette and I have had on any of our previous cruises. We had lots of conversation and laughter each night. It was also the first cruise where we hung out with our dinner mates outside of the dining room.

On our first day at sea, Yvette and I signed up for a spinning class. Our hope was that the physical activity would help offset the good food and drink. I unfortunately had a collision with the bike when my foot flew out of the pedal, which came around and then gouged me in the shin. I finished the class while watching the blood run down my leg into my sneaker. I was able to wash my sneaker in the room and Yvette, who had packed a first aid kit, bandaged me up.

With the cold weather, Yvette and I did not sit out on deck. Instead, we spent time playing in the Casino, shopping, playing games with each other and reading.

Our arrival in Cozumel was uneventful and since we were doing this trip on the “cheap”, we skipped the shore excursions and opted for shopping. Cozumel is one of our favorite destinations. While we were shopping, a storm rolled through so we stopped and ate lunch in port. With shopping complete, we headed back to the ship. The ship’s departure was delayed for almost 30 minutes while waiting for a family of 5 to return. That evening, we and several others, commandeered one of the bars in the back of the ship and watched the Florida/Alabama and then the Texas/Nebraska football games on large flat-screen televisions. The crowd kept growing and getting louder throughout the games, but we all had a great time. In addition, Mark, Nancy and Lisa joined us to watch the Texas game.

Later that evening, I played a round of laser tag in a large inflatable arena. Out of the five of us who played, I came in second behind a teenage girl.

It was warmer on our second day at sea, and people were lying out by the pools. Yvette and I headed up to play some serious rounds of miniature golf. It was close, but in the end I managed to beat Yvette.

While Yvette and told me that we weren’t going to take any formal portraits on my birthday cruise, which lasted all of a couple minutes. We ended up taking lots of pictures and walked away with a couple or poses that we really liked. The only formal portraits that Yvette and I have of us were taken on cruise ships. This was also the first cruise were we bought the picture that they took of us getting off of the ship in port. Yvette said we looked good in it.

Unfortunately, the cruise had to come to an end; however, we were in for a surprise. I really enjoy watching operational stuff, so I got up early on our last day to watch us arrive in port. However, when I got to the front of the ship, I noticed we were in thick fog and moving very slowly. Later, the cruise director would announce that the Port of Galveston was closed until later that morning. We ended up arriving at the dock just before 1:00 PM, which after getting approval to leave the ship, getting our baggage, and clearing Customs, put us back into Austin at 8:30 PM.

Even with the weather, Yvette and I had a great time and would do a 4-day cruise again, just not in December.

Yvette and I just got back from our first trip to Wendover, Nevada. I had overheard about the trip during a meeting over the summer and, after performing a little research, convinced Yvette to give it a try. For $179 per person, we received round-trip airfare between Austin and Wendover along with 3 night’s hotel accommodations. Before I dive into the review, Wendover is NOT Las Vegas. Las Vegas has large hotel casinos that are just as fun to tour as they are to gamble. In addition, Las Vegas has lots of shopping. Wendover has five smaller casinos with very little shopping. We were a little worried, given some of the reviews that we had read, but figured that if we got bored, we would just relax play games and read the books that we each brought.

Our flight departed on Thursday afternoon. It was charter 737 operated by Xtra Airways and filled to capacity. The flights move all over the states, only coming to Austin every 1 – 2 months. We were probably the second youngest couple on the flight. There was a younger couple that was celebrating a 30^th birthday. While the flight had more senior people, there was a mixture of ages at the casinos. We later found out that most of the business drove or took a bus in from Salt Lake. The flight crew was wonderful and had several giveaways and money draws where people through money into a pot and the crew drew a winner. After a 2 ½ hour flight, the plane landed at Wendover Airfield, an old military base that was also used in the Con Air movie. We deplaned using stairs and walked to the terminal, immediately feeling the difference in climate between Austin and Northern Nevada. In addition, Wendover is located at the base of some mountains. It was much cooler, but we had brought our jackets.

The resorts had buses waiting that took us to our hotels. While Wendover has five casinos, only three of them participate in this program. Out of the three, we chose the Rainbow Resort, because it had an indoor pool. We ended up not using the pool because we had more than enough to do, plus you had to walk through the casino to get to the pool. The bus from the airport dropped us off at the front door of the hotel. The check-in process was extremely efficient. We flashed our identification and the clerk handed us our package with room keys, player cards, coupons and other information. The hotel has four floors and we stayed on the fourth floor, which was non-smoking. There is smoking in the casinos and while it didn’t bother Yvette and me, the smell was noticeable.

Our room had two queen beds and 42″ LCD television. It also had a small table with comfortable chairs that we used to play games late in the evening. Since our luggage would not arrive until later, and we were hungry, we walked next door to the Red Garter Casino for some inexpensive dinner. Out of the five casinos, the Red Garter was the smallest and the most worn looking; however, the food was cheap and they had $2 blackjack. Yvette and I ended up eating their $2.99 breakfast there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. After a little dinner and gambling, Yvette and I headed back to our hotel for some more gambling before heading back to the room.

On Friday, after breakfast, we walked down the street to see Wendover Will so that I could take some pictures. Once Yvette had let me have my fun, we walked back to the Rainbow and took the 24 hour shuttle to end of the strip to visit the Wendover Nugget. Out of the five casinos, the interior of the Nugget most reminded us of a Las Vegas casino. The three other casinos, the Montego Bay, Peppermill, and Rainbow had more neon than you can imagine. Look for some pictures later. We probably gambled most at the Nugget, followed by the Rainbow and Red Garter. From the Nugget we walked over to Montego Bay, but since the casino wasn’t much different than ours, we did not stay long. We stopped by the local Subway for lunch and then started walking back down the strip. We stopped in at the Peppermill casino, but again, it was very similar to ours so we didn’t stay long. After a little more gambling, Yvette and I splurged and enjoyed the “seafood extravaganza” buffet at the Rainbow for dinner.

On Saturday morning, Yvette and I awoke to find that we had received snow overnight. It did not stay on the ground very long, but it was cold enough that Yvette and I decided that except for walking next door to the Red Garter, that we would be riding the shuttle. We stopped into the Rainbow’s sport book and sat with some other fellow Texan’s to watch the last 1 ½ quarters of the Texas/Baylor game. On Friday, I had wagered $5 for Texas to win, but the point spread was 23.5, which had me a little worried. Of course, Texas ended up winning and beating the spread. After the game, we headed back to the Nugget where I played some poker, while Yvette hit the slots. While Yvette and I limit our total gambling to no more than $50 each per day, Yvette had a good day a won over $30 playing penny and nickel slots. Later, Yvette and I played some head-to-head slots on a game called Texas Tea. The idea is that we each start with a dollar, playing $0.05 per spin and see who lasts the longest. We ended up playing three rounds, which kept us going for well over an hour. I won two of the rounds; however, in the end Yvette had more winnings having turned over her $1 from one of the rounds into over $4. We finished out the evening with some more slots, dinner at the buffet again (we skipped lunch), followed by packing the suitcases and a card game in the room.

Sunday we ran the bags down to the airline representative, which like everything else during the trip, was a fast and easy process. We headed over to the Red Garter for our last breakfast before walking back to catch the bus to the airport. The flight two and from Wendover was on a 737 that was filled to capacity.

We never encounter a rude staff person at any of the casinos; however, since Yvette and I are so easy going, it would be easy for us to overlook it. Our only minor complaint was that none of the hotels offered very many t-shirts or souvenirs, which usually eats a portion of our money during any trip. We ended up with a few postcards and a refrigerator magnet. When I mentioned that lack of offerings to the hotel manager, he provided me with a brand new t-shirt that was left over from a previous event. I am sure Yvette will confiscate the t-shirt from me.

In all, Yvette and I agreed that we had a wonderful time and would consider doing it again in a year. At $179 per person for the flight and hotel, we could not beat the price for entertainment. We would even consider going with a group of friends next time (hint hint).