Lets start planning a gathering for 2008!

crazycal · 10-18-2007, 11:42 AM

Maybe one for the eastern half and one for the western half of the U.S. Starting now would give us almost a whole year. I don't think it has to be anything like burning man. How about suggestions for locations.

KC10Chief · 10-18-2007, 01:16 PM

You know, Oklahoma City is pretty centrally located in the US!

That way, everybody can go to the same gathering! There's tons of places to camp and I can't think of one place in the whole state that wouldn't welcome a bunch of skoolies.

crazycal · 10-18-2007, 07:40 PM

Your suggestion wouldn't have anything to do with you being located in Florida, would it??

KC10Chief · 10-18-2007, 09:21 PM

Oh yeah! I just realized that I live in OKC! How convenient for me!

Anyways, look at a map. It IS centrally located in the US and there's three major highways that run through the city. I'm just saying...

There's a lake SE of town with lots of cheap spots. It's $8 a night for a space with water and electricity next to the lake. Nobody cares how loud you are either.

the_experience03 · 10-18-2007, 10:25 PM

1000 miles one way

but it does take care of Oklahoma and Kansas, two more states in my quest to visit all 50 before I turn 30.

2000 miles worth of fuel divided by 8 mpg gets me at 250 gallons of fuel which would run $750 at $3.00 per gallon. If I could get 5 people to go with me at a fuel cost of say $200 each (rounding up is always good) and I think it would be doable aside from the long drive. Mapquest says 14 hours which really means 20 hours from departure to arrival if we make food and fuel stops short. I will certainly need a co-driver. After 12 hours my back muscles start cramping up.

I see an air ride or atleast nice bucket seat and some veggie oil in my future....

DizzyIzzy · 10-19-2007, 12:13 AM

869 mi – about 13 hours 23 mins

I could do that! It would be fun.

I could do a Skoolie.net Video Documentary there!

Demonknight · 10-19-2007, 01:43 AM

Heck I might even be able to make that one..it seems as that now we are in washington we need to head back to nebraska

but at least I'll have a lot of room to park my bus at the family farm.

KC10Chief · 10-19-2007, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_experience03

1000 miles one way

but it does take care of Oklahoma and Kansas, two more states in my quest to visit all 50 before I turn 30.

2000 miles worth of fuel divided by 8 mpg gets me at 250 gallons of fuel which would run $750 at $3.00 per gallon. If I could get 5 people to go with me at a fuel cost of say $200 each (rounding up is always good) and I think it would be doable aside from the long drive. Mapquest says 14 hours which really means 20 hours from departure to arrival if we make food and fuel stops short. I will certainly need a co-driver. After 12 hours my back muscles start cramping up.

I see an air ride or atleast nice bucket seat and some veggie oil in my future....

You've never been to Oklahoma? That's another reason to have the Skoolie gathering here!

I've been to every state except Alaska. I turn 30 next year. I might make it up there before then!

I bought a Pontiac Bonneville seat from a salvage yard for $10. It's in excellent shape and Bonneville seats are VERY comfortable. It's a bucket type seat. It improved the comfort of driving my bus greatly!

phillbus914 · 10-19-2007, 11:33 AM

I'd sure love to go, not sure how the finances or job situation will be at that point. Looks like it's about 950 miles each way for me.. at 9mpg that puts fuel costs at about $700. If Jason goes I can convoy down with him, he's a handy guy to have on a long trip - he knows how to keep a skoolie running.

Is this going to be a family friendly thing? We have a 2 year old and are expecting another in less than a month, maybe we can get a sitter for one.. but I doubt both.

KC10Chief · 10-19-2007, 12:06 PM

I'm going to try and sell Oklahoma some more here...

Oklahoma IS centrally located in the US. I-40, I-35 and I-44 are three major interstates that run through here. The weather is nice in the summer, but July and August can get pretty hot. June might be a good time. Kids across the country would be out of school and the weather here is Awesome in June. It's 85 to 90 during the day, and about 70 at night. Tornado season is winding down about then too.

There's tons of parks around the city. Lake Thunderbird is about 15 miles SE of OKC. They have primitive sites and sites where you can pull a school bus sized RV in and you'll have 30A electric and water hookups. It was $8 a night last time I was there, and they never came around and collected anyways. There's a beach there where you can swim in the lake and a boat ramp if you bring a boat with you! If you don't have a bathroom in your bus, they have nice bathrooms with showers there. They would be VERY skoolie friendly there as well. They are also pretty tolerant of loud people and beer drinking if that's your thing.

Another neat place is Roman Nose State Park. It's about 80 miles ENE of OKC. It is a beautiful place with lots of parking for buses and RV's. They are skoolie friendly as well. They also have 30A and 50A hookups and water. The sites are $15 a night. There are beautiful mesa's all around with lots of hiking, mountain biking and horse trails. There is also a small lake there where you can fish and swim. Again, if you don't have a bathroom, Roman Nose does!

Red Rock Canyon state park is about 60 miles east of Oklahoma City and is a very cool place. It's a little canyon that's maybe 200 feet deep and several miles long. You can drive down in there and they have lots of RV spaces with hookups, and primitive sites as well. They also have bathrooms with showers although they're kind of creepy. The park is beautiful. There are big red cliffs and lots of trees. There is a big pond that you can fish in and a creek that runs through the whole place. There's tons of hiking trails and you can rock climb as well. You don't need gear, but if you like to repel, there's places for that too. They have a swimming pool and concession stands too.

My favorite place to camp by far, is Palo Duro Canyon. It is in the Texas panhandle about 20 miles south of Amarillo and about 280 miles from OKC. Palo Duro is the second biggest canyon in the country. It's about 1,000 feet deep and 40 miles long. You can see it on Google Earth. Unlike the Grand Canyon you drive down into Palo Duro. They have lots of VERY nice camp sites with all the hookups. It is $15 a night. Their bathrooms and showers are very nice as well. They have miles and miles of incredible hiking and biking trails. If you like rock climbing, there's plenty of that to do too. Wildlife is everywhere. Every time I go, I see deer, wild turkeys, lizards, snakes, big horn sheep, road runners, painted buntings, hawks, coyotes etc. They have a restaurant, gift shop, concession stand and a neat visitors center there too. The views are incredible and there are some really bizarre rock formations there like hoo doo's. They also have a couple of small caves that you can explore without any gear. Palo Duro would be an incredible place and I don't know of anybody that doesn't love it. Most people have never even heard of it. But it is an awesome place. Check out their website and pictures at http://www.palodurocanyon.com.

I stayed at El Dorado state park in Kansas a couple years ago. It is 20 or 30 miles NE of Wichita. The place was VERY nice and seemed to be pretty popular. We had a very nice campsite next to the lake and it was about $15 or so a night if I remember correctly. You're pretty exposed to any weather that comes through though.

If nobody wants to pay to camp at a park, my dad has 15 acres about 10 miles east of OKC that he will let us use. There's no hookups or anything, but you would be close to civilization if you had a problem. Or, there's a Wal-Mart down the street from my house and I see RV's there all the time.

Anyways, these are just my suggestions on some nice places.

KC10Chief · 10-19-2007, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillbus914

I'd sure love to go, not sure how the finances or job situation will be at that point. Looks like it's about 950 miles each way for me.. at 9mpg that puts fuel costs at about $700. If Jason goes I can convoy down with him, he's a handy guy to have on a long trip - he knows how to keep a skoolie running.

Is this going to be a family friendly thing? We have a 2 year old and are expecting another in less than a month, maybe we can get a sitter for one.. but I doubt both.

It should definitely be family friendly. All of the places I suggested are family friendly and they have stuff that kids like to do (playgrounds, swimming, fishing etc.). Even the loud beer drinking place. There's plenty for kids to do there too. I have a 9 year old and a 1 year old. I think the majority of people on this board have kids.

wmah · 10-19-2007, 06:09 PM

I'm up for this but I'm sure most of us need plenty of notice as to exact dates.I often need up to 6 months notice for time off. My only need would be spaces that are not muddy with ruff landscaping. Flat grass areas are good and gravel is also ok. As for restrooms I have my own but my tanks are kinda small so I would need water and sewer hookups or unless the showers are wheelchair accessible. If I have to I can make daily trips to a dump station that would be ok too.

lapeer20m · 10-19-2007, 06:47 PM

count me out. Although i'd like to hang out with other skoolies, i have a difficult time justifying the $2K in fuel.

phillbus914 · 10-19-2007, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lapeer20m

count me out. Although i'd like to hang out with other skoolies, i have a difficult time justifying the $2K in fuel.

You could drive to my house and ride with me. I'm sure everyone would love to see a jacuzzi bus in action but meeting the creator would be the next best thing. Plus we can take turns driving my bus.

KC10Chief · 10-20-2007, 11:22 AM

Yeah, and now that somebody used the Buy it Now feature on your bus sale, you should be able to afford the $2K in gas!

phillbus914 · 10-20-2007, 03:59 PM

We should figure out where the geographical center of us skoolie owners is... what I mean is take a map with all of us on it as dots and find the center of that... that way it may be closer for a lot of people. I know there's a map on here somewhere with all of our locations on it.

$700 in fuel for me plus $2,000 for Jason (even if he did just strike gold) is a lot of money.

Maybe we can get this show to sponsor our traveling costs to get all the bus's in one location, in exchange for letting them make a show out of our bus's. Seems fair to me, I mean they're collecting advertisement money in exchange for a program.A sitcom would pay actors for their role in the show. Hell if the cast of Sienfield and Friends each received $1,000,000 per episode I would imagine travel expenses would be nothing, even if there's fewer viewers.

the_experience03 · 10-20-2007, 06:16 PM

There used to be a map type thing on the board somewhere with a thumbtack everywhere a member lived, but I can't remember how or where I found it. I do recall there were a fair number of us in the northern midwest.

I've always like the U.P. if it comes down to a regional get together

nyrockingchairs · 10-21-2007, 12:28 PM

Wow, further than I thought at 1300 miles one way, so 270 gallons puts us around $900.

Doable, so we would probably be in, depends on dates selected. We are amiable to roughing it or living it up in a camp-ground.

wmah · 10-21-2007, 07:04 PM

Here's the map.

http://www.frappr.com/skoolie

the_experience03 · 10-21-2007, 07:49 PM

Cool! Thanks, Wmah. I knew the site had a goofy name, but I sure wasn't going to remember Frappr.

So....can everyone go ahead and add their pins on that map so we can get a better idea of demographics?

It would appear that with the exception of a few Canadian (Canadien?) outliers I am the only one from the frozen north.

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