By Chuck Woodbury

A few thoughts about the cost of RVing:

For RVing families, it is still a heck of a lot more affordable to take a camping trip than it is to drive or fly somewhere and stay in hotels and eat in restaurants. Plane fares are up and hotels and motels typically charge $100 a night for a family except at bargain chains. A campsite is cheap by comparison (and sometimes even free). Try eating three healthy meals a day for a family of four at restaurants for less than $75-$100 a day. The key word here is "healthy." Eating at fast food joints may cost less, but it's bad for your health. In an RV, healthy meals can be prepared like at home for far less than dining at restaurants.

Critics of RVing compare motor homes to cars -- both have engines, so they assume that because the RV gets 10 miles per gallon and their car gets 25 mpg that RVers are gas hogs and they're not. What these folks fail to consider is that while they may commute to work with their cars 20, 50 or more miles each weekday -- usually one person in the car, the RVer, typically with two people on board, drives only occasionally, and in a year's time will consume a fraction of the fossil fuels needed to fund a daily commute. And when an RV is parked it uses no diesel or gas, and minimal other resources.