What it Costs to Discover America on 2 Wheels

I've been waiting till I had compiled all the data on the costs for Leg 1 and Leg 2 and had published all the videos of both legs before writing this post.

Here is some cost data on specific items for the first 1268 miles of Discovering America on 2 Wheels:

• The average cost of a motel was $57 / night taxes and all. I stayed at motels 22 of 37 days.
• The average cost of a water/electric campsite was $18/night. I stayed in State Parks 15 of 37 days. I would have stayed 2 more days in State Parks - Santa Rosa State Park specifically - but the New Mexico State Parks were closed January 14th and 15th due to budget cuts.
• When you prorate the motel costs for 22 days and the state park campsite fees for 15 days, my average "lodging"cost was $41.18/night. Note: I hesitate to call sleeping on the ground under a "lean to" tarp in 20 deg temps "lodging"....
• The average cost of food and supplies was $20/day or about $7/meal.
• I spent $280 in bike tune-ups, repairs, tubes - Puncture resistant tubes are $5 each- and equipment replacement during the 37 days of Leg 1 and 2 so Bike Costs average $7.46 / day
• I added a Verizon Wireless Card Monthly Charge via my Gateway Netbook for $62/month so if your prorate that for 37 days my Verizon Wireless Card averaged a little over $2/day.
• I had $75 in postal charges for mailing stuff to and fro so postal costs were about $2/day.
• There were quite a few other miscellaneous costs and cash expenditures that I didn't keep detailed records of that amounted to about $5/day.
• So when you add all this up: $41.18+$20+$7.46+$2+$2+$5 you get a total of $77.64/day in travel costs.

And that was pretty bare bones....as I said I could've gotten the lodging cost below $40/day if I could've stayed at Santa Rosa State Park 2 nights and I probably could have cut my eating cost down a couple of bucks a day if I had gone to McDonalds when I hit town but that's not what this thing is about....

It's about seeing, doing, enjoying, eating and drinking NOT at the most expensive places but at the BEST places.

Now the above costs DON'T include what I call setup and overhead costs.... it doesn't include the $300 worth of Verizon Wireless products and accessories I purchased to bring the commentary, pics and video to the blog as real time as is currently technologically possible. It doesn't include $200 in software, zip drives and other computer stuff to do the videos for YouTube.

And last but not least I'm not getting paid a dime to do this.... at least not as of today.... Yeah....maybe you're thinking "Why should you get paid? You're out there living a dream when I'm stuck in a job I hate doing....."

And I guess that would be right in a way.... but let me also say that while I conveyed some of the pain and discomfort of long days in the saddle and cold nights on the ground, I don't think I could say that all of what I did was "fun"..... in fact, much of what I did was the hardest physical and most taxing and grueling mental "work" I have ever done... you try pedaling a bike for 12 hours against a 25 mph wind and then we'll talk about "fun" and there was more than 1 day (and night) I did just that.

Looking at it another way... assume I was making minimum wage $7.25/hour. My adventure aka "job" started everyday for 37 days before sunrise and lasted till well after sunset...probably averaged 14-16 hours per day... but let's be reasonable... let's just cut it down to 12 hours per day....

If I was getting "paid" minimum wage for 12 hours per day at $7.25/hr, that would come to $87/day.... take out 15% for the combination of Income Tax, Social Security and Medicare and you'd have $73.95/day... which would just about meet my expenses.

Ok.... so what's the point of all this number crunching and data dancing and moaning and groaning anyway?

Well... I need your help...

If you have enjoyed this blog and the adventure that it documents and the imagery and commentary that have brought you right along with me every step and every turn of the wheel on the way from Lake Jackson Tx to Santa Fe NM....

Please consider making a donation to Discovering America on 2 Wheels using the PayPal button at the top of the blog.

I still want to do Leg 3 - Santa Fe NM to Los Angeles w/ a 100 mile RT detour at Flagstaff AZ to Grand Canyon NP - total of 960 miles and it'll take about 30 days to do it but....

I have to at least meet my expenses to do it.

Is there support out there for Leg 3?... I guess I'll find out!