Reply #12: The other option is to find a friend or even just a good acquaintance (or a DU'er).

[haele]

Seconding the camping trip. I used to do the SCA thing, and would get together with a small group or household I was friendly with and coordinate camping when there was a big week-long event at a state campground. You want to talk limited budget, talk to a SCA-dian re-enactor on how they can schlep two steamer trunks full of gear around and still have a great time attending a week-long Inter-Kingdom War at a State Park a couple hundred miles away for around $200 and 1/4 of someone else's gas...

$400.00 goes much farther when there's two or three good friends taking off for a couple days or a week to, say, the Lake Country or down along the Gulf doing a camping/fishing or hiking/camping trip. Or perhaps a bike-camping trip, if you like the exercise, and don't mind living in a pup-tent with a minimum of "comfort" - and think you can plan your rest/view stops and overnight camping stops accurately. I've known a couple people who used to do that way back in the day, and they said that while it was really fun to do when you go in a group, there were few things worse than losing track of time and being 10 to 20 miles away from your night stop when the sun goes down. (The worse were asshat drivers who thought it was fun to harass bikers...)

Good luck.

Haele