Blow That Dough - 2022

[2017ish]

Doing another first world trip beginning next month. 5 weeks driving in the Irelands, followed by 2 weeks in Scotland. Looking much more expensive than the 2 weeks in Cozumel and 5 in Colombia earlier this year. Should be interesting though--and at least the dining doesn't look as wallet-sucking as our autumn trip around Spain!

 

[explanade]

Doing another first world trip beginning next month. 5 weeks driving in the Irelands, followed by 2 weeks in Scotland. Looking much more expensive than the 2 weeks in Cozumel and 5 in Colombia earlier this year. Should be interesting though--and at least the dining doesn't look as wallet-sucking as our autumn trip around Spain!

Interesting trip. Hope you get good weather but seems like you would have to go in July, August, September to have the best chance to avoid rain.

5 weeks sounds like it would cover all or most of the island.

I've only been to Ireland once, never to Scotland. I was gobsmacked when I heard that they got rid of smoking in pubs and restaurants?

Thing I remember is as soon as the flight landed -- short flight from Heathrow -- you heard all these lighters flicking after getting off the plane.

Mainly want to see all those coastal cliffs.

 

[Koolau]

Last year my gear system failed and I had to land wheels up. After a lot of waiting for supply chain issues on parts, I'm back in the air with a new landing gear system, prop and engine.

Just wondering if it would have been safe to stall the prop and come in truly dead stick to save the engine. I used to practice that in my C-150. Of course, I know there's a big difference between dead-sticking a Comanche and a puddle jumper.

I had an instructor (the one who taught me how to do spins) who had amazing stories of his time in the USAF. He was kind of a show-off and braggart but a nice guy and I much preferred him as an instructor than the other folks available for flight training. He had a brief j*b of ferrying a local executive to the near-by international airport. Upon return, he would shut off the engine of the C-182 about 15 miles out, stall the prop, dead stick into our little FBO and coast up to the gas pumps. I actually saw him do it once from the FBO office. Very impressive though not sure how smart it was. YMMV

 

[2017ish]

Interesting trip. Hope you get good weather but seems like you would have to go in July, August, September to have the best chance to avoid rain.

5 weeks sounds like it would cover all or most of the island.

...

Mainly want to see all those coastal cliffs.

Yeah, we are a little early, but had a big trip already scheduled for Oct-Dec. This looked like the best of our last minute options for a variety of subjective and objective reasons--including the hikes along those coastal cliffs!

And yes, we generally try to beat our destinations to death in one fell swoop... (Rarely do less than a month internationally unless a "keep wet" dive trip. Gotta amortize the cost of flights!)

 

[BrianB]

I just totaled up the spending on our 7 week / 6000 mile winter escape in the new campervan. We left from MN on 1/13, went straight south as fast as we could, across west Texas, then explored NM and AZ and southern NV. Got back to MN on 3/1.

Total $5701.

That includes everything we spent - even groceries & personal care items that we would have had to buy at home.

The memories and escape from a MN winter were priceless.

We also can confirm that it's possible two people, together 24/7 for 7 weeks living in a 72 sq. ft. space, can survive and even thrive!

BrianB

 

[2017ish]

I just totaled up the spending on our 7 week / 6000 mile winter escape in the new campervan. ....

Total $5701.
...

We also can confirm that it's possible two people, together 24/7 for 7 weeks living in a 72 sq. ft. space, can survive and even thrive!

BrianB

Sounds fantastic--although RobbieB might kick you out of the blow your dough club for that enviable tab! Close friends of ours are going this route when they retire in '23 and are already testing their RV out.

Not for everyone though. Even though we do our domestic road trips in a Fit and frequently stay at Quality Inn, DW wasn't sold by our summer 2020 weeks-long RV jaunt in Alaska. Oh well, I tried.

 

[rodi]

I just totaled up the spending on our 7 week / 6000 mile winter escape in the new campervan. We left from MN on 1/13, went straight south as fast as we could, across west Texas, then explored NM and AZ and southern NV. Got back to MN on 3/1.

Total $5701.

That includes everything we spent - even groceries & personal care items that we would have had to buy at home.

The memories and escape from a MN winter were priceless.

We also can confirm that it's possible two people, together 24/7 for 7 weeks living in a 72 sq. ft. space, can survive and even thrive!

BrianB

Sounds like money well spent. Did you stay in campgrounds or boondock?

We just did 4 nights in Nevada (Red Rocks Canyon as a base, but side trips to Valley of Fire and Mt Charleston/Lees Canyon.) We splurged on dinners out since we were less than 5 miles from a strip mall with several restaurants. Friends brought a single malt scotch that DH imbibed... so we blew *their* dough. LOL.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I just totaled up the spending on our 7 week / 6000 mile winter escape in the new campervan. We left from MN on 1/13, went straight south as fast as we could, across west Texas, then explored NM and AZ and southern NV. Got back to MN on 3/1.

Total $5701.

That includes everything we spent - even groceries & personal care items that we would have had to buy at home.

The memories and escape from a MN winter were priceless.

We also can confirm that it's possible two people, together 24/7 for 7 weeks living in a 72 sq. ft. space, can survive and even thrive!

BrianB

Good for you guys. I live in MN and have thought about what you're doing. I wouldn't come home on 3/1, too much winter left. Like to hear more about your trip.

 

[BrianB]

Rodi: We are flexible. We used National Parks, State Parks, private campgrounds and RV resorts. And we boondocked. We also did a little driveway surfing and even a couple of nights at hotels.

One great option we found was Harvest Host. We stayed at a couple of wineries, a 1950's diner / dinner theater, and a biker bar on Route 66. Totally different experiences but every stay was unique and fun.

BrianB

 

[BrianB]

Good for you guys. I live in MN and have thought about what you're doing. I wouldn't come home on 3/1, too much winter left. Like to hear more about your trip.

I agree we returned too soon. This was our longest winter getaway yet, but we should have extended it another two weeks. I was thinking our taxes would take a few weeks so I wanted to have enough time to finish them, turned out it only took two days.

BrianB

 

[Koolau]

I just totaled up the spending on our 7 week / 6000 mile winter escape in the new campervan. We left from MN on 1/13, went straight south as fast as we could, across west Texas, then explored NM and AZ and southern NV. Got back to MN on 3/1.

Total $5701.

That includes everything we spent - even groceries & personal care items that we would have had to buy at home.

The memories and escape from a MN winter were priceless.

We also can confirm that it's possible two people, together 24/7 for 7 weeks living in a 72 sq. ft. space, can survive and even thrive!

BrianB

Congrats on surviving 7 weeks in 72 SF with DW. Not sure I could do that.

Heh, heh, sometimes (not often) an 1100 SF apartment "ain't big enough fer da bote of us." YMMV

 

[bmcgonig]

Interesting trip. Hope you get good weather but seems like you would have to go in July, August, September to have the best chance to avoid rain.



5 weeks sounds like it would cover all or most of the island.



I've only been to Ireland once, never to Scotland. I was gobsmacked when I heard that they got rid of smoking in pubs and restaurants?



Thing I remember is as soon as the flight landed -- short flight from Heathrow -- you heard all these lighters flicking after getting off the plane.



Mainly want to see all those coastal cliffs.

August can be a crappy month weatherwise in Ireland. June and July are better, especially June. June is exam time and I remember growing up there that exam time usually had nice weather unfortunately [emoji846]

 

[braumeister]

August can be a crappy month weatherwise in Ireland.

That's probably quite variable.

In 2019 we spent most of August (last three weeks) traveling all over Ireland and had what we considered great weather. A little bit of rain most days, but generally quite nice with good temperatures.

 

[skyking1]

I picked up a Nordic Track treadmill at Costco yesterday. yay us!

 

[explanade]

August can be a crappy month weatherwise in Ireland. June and July are better, especially June. June is exam time and I remember growing up there that exam time usually had nice weather unfortunately [emoji846]

That's probably quite variable.

In 2019 we spent most of August (last three weeks) traveling all over Ireland and had what we considered great weather. A little bit of rain most days, but generally quite nice with good temperatures.

Basically I'm going by annual weather patterns -- temperatures, rainfall.

There are parts of Europe which get a lot of rain, like the Alps, Northern Spain, northern UK and Ireland, Scandinavia.

These places get more rain in their driest months than Southern Europe.

So you kind of have to play the odds. Yes the crowds are worse in August and the prices are the highest but just talking mainly about weather.

 

[BrianB]

Congrats on surviving 7 weeks in 72 SF with DW. Not sure I could do that.

Heh, heh, sometimes (not often) an 1100 SF apartment "ain't big enough fer da bote of us." YMMV

We live in (and raised our daughter in) a 1300 SF house with no basement and a barely-two-car garage.

We've had lots of practice living small!

Many times we marvel at how we each found such a compatible partner. Our 31st anniversary is next month

BrianB

 

[braumeister]

We live in (and raised our daughter in) a 1300 SF house with no basement and a barely-two-car garage.

We've had lots of practice living small!

I grew up in a 1,200 sf house, and it was one of the bigger houses on the street. My parents bought it for $10K in 1948, sold it for $70K in 1975. Then the area suddenly became trendy. Its most recent sale was in 2020 for $650K. Location, location, location.

 

[sdtech]

Just wondering if it would have been safe to stall the prop and come in truly dead stick to save the engine. I used to practice that in my C-150.
YMMV

I actually tried to stop the prop by killing the engine and bringing the plane almost to stall before landing. Turns out that in a single comanche it just doesn't work - the prop keeps turning. It does for many other kinds of planes though.

 

[madsquopper]

It looks like our deck will either need significant repair work, or else just start from scratch and convert to Trex. Likely to be in the 15 to 20k range. A big chunk of change but not fatal.

 

[athena53]

DS, DDIL and the kids (8,5 and almost 3) arrived Tuesday night and left a couple of hours ago. I'm starting to realize how much the cost of these visits escalates as kids "age out" of free admission and they order their own food in restaurants instead of sharing from the adults; plates, but so much fun! The splurges included:

1. 3 lbs. of crab legs and 4 lbs. of shrimp, which DS made into shrimp scampi one night and gumbo another ( I still have leftover fish stock and gumbo).

2. A total of a dozen bath bombs at $6.50 each (one per kid for each of 4 nights). These are overpriced, tennis-ball sized masses of epsom salts and citric acid that fizz down in the bath water to reveal a toy in the middle. They used to be available at any of the stores of a local grocery chain. Now only one carries them. I wish they'd stop.

3. I ordered Birkenstock sandals for each of the 3 kids after we looked at what was available on-line. The 2 older ones got some last year and loved them.

4. Crown Center- the Aquarium, the Crayola store for paints and paper, and lunch, which DS and DDIL picked up.

5. Two more restaurant meals- Joe's BBQ (on Anthony Bourdain's list of 13 places to eat before you die) and, last night, an excellent but kid-friendly Italian place.

I think it was a $1,000 weekend. Well worth it. What delights me is that the kids are totally unspoiled. They love painting pictures, reading books, making up games, hiking around the lake throwing stones in the lake and picking daffodils blooming in my garden. After they got over the shock of an aggressive hissing, honking Canada goose (turned out he was guarding a nesting female), they were pretending to be chased by geese after we got home.

I'm back to my nice, quiet empty house and that's good, too, but I so enjoyed sharing it with them.

 

[aja8888]

DS, DDIL and the kids (8,5 and almost 3) arrived Tuesday night and left a couple of hours ago. I'm starting to realize how much the cost of these visits escalates as kids "age out" of free admission and they order their own food in restaurants instead of sharing from the adults; plates, but so much fun! The splurges included:

1. 3 lbs. of crab legs and 4 lbs. of shrimp, which DS made into shrimp scampi one night and gumbo another ( I still have leftover fish stock and gumbo).

2. A total of a dozen bath bombs at $6.50 each (one per kid for each of 4 nights). These are overpriced, tennis-ball sized masses of epsom salts and citric acid that fizz down in the bath water to reveal a toy in the middle. They used to be available at any of the stores of a local grocery chain. Now only one carries them. I wish they'd stop.

3. I ordered Birkenstock sandals for each of the 3 kids after we looked at what was available on-line. The 2 older ones got some last year and loved them.

4. Crown Center- the Aquarium, the Crayola store for paints and paper, and lunch, which DS and DDIL picked up.

5. Two more restaurant meals- Joe's BBQ (on Anthony Bourdain's list of 13 places to eat before you die) and, last night, an excellent but kid-friendly Italian place.

I think it was a $1,000 weekend. Well worth it. What delights me is that the kids are totally unspoiled. They love painting pictures, reading books, making up games, hiking around the lake throwing stones in the lake and picking daffodils blooming in my garden. After they got over the shock of an aggressive hissing, honking Canada goose (turned out he was guarding a nesting female), they were pretending to be chased by geese after we got home.

I'm back to my nice, quiet empty house and that's good, too, but I so enjoyed sharing it with them.

Sounds like money well spent!

 

[NW-Bound]

Sounds like money well spent!

+1

That's what money is for.

 

[skyking1]

I actually tried to stop the prop by killing the engine and bringing the plane almost to stall before landing. Turns out that in a single comanche it just doesn't work - the prop keeps turning. It does for many other kinds of planes though.

statistically it is a negative to try and stop the prop, as you have quite the workload going on in an emergency to begin with. You did well to keep the dirty side down

 

[Koolau]

The resident manager came around with his clip board writing up all external "infractions" of each condo unit (in our case: screen frames eaten away by salt air and badly rusted iron gate.) It cost $400 and a lot of time, finding folks to do the w*rk. Could have been worse but YMMV.

 

[RobbieB]

statistically it is a negative to try and stop the prop, as you have quite the workload going on in an emergency to begin with. You did well to keep the dirty side down

Any landing you can walk away from...