The main thing I want to avoid at all costs (pun intended) is to end up just walking around or driving around somewhere no one has really been without knowing what is going on.
My initial thoughts, make a super inexpensive but "action" packed week. Maximize fun but minimize cost. How to do that?
By doing it at my place, we save money on hotels (but with the comfort of one instead of camping 24/7), food (unless we want to eat out for dinner and stuff), and gas (I don't think me paying for food and gas in unfair because i don't have to fly anywhere).
Here is my list (which is growing) and est. cost (per person) of things to do:
- Paintball = $35-45
- Shoot guns = $5-10
- Hike = $0
- Rappel = $0
- Camp = $5-10
- Kayak/Canoe/Sail = $0-25
- Halo = $0
- Food = $60
Estimated: $150
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Sample breakdown of the week.
Monday
- Arrive
Tuesday
- Hike/Rappel
Wednesday
- Shooting
- Halo
- Special Dinner
Thursday
- Paintball
Friday
- Camp (into Sat. morning)
Saturday
- Kayak/Canoe/Sail
Sunday
- Depart
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Keep in mind that the schedule is very, very loose and only made to show that some events take a full day.
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One idea is instead of doing one big expensive trip somewhere most of us haven't been, each year we do a medium one and stay at someone's house. Keeps costs down and depending on activities, should still be a lot of fun because we should have a schedule.
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Sample details:
- Stay at my house [everyone sleeps in the living room]
- No need to pay for gas, I will [I don't have to fly]
- Most meals free [eat my place except for certain dinners]
- If it is at my place, we don't have DC tours planned, just outdoors stuff [old rag mountain is great, 2 hour drive away. also, we would drive near my old house to shoot guns]
- (I thought I had more details for this)
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What you get (working on it, kinda like goodie bags):
- Custom dog tags
- Survival kit
- No gas costs
- Most meals
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Guns to shoot:
- .22 Rifles
- .44 Magnum
- Shotguns
- .38 Special
- Marlin .22 Long Rifle
- Browning Sweet Sixteen
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Driving from Tulsa to Alexandria
1200 miles @ 22 mpg @ $4/g = $216
Most likely better to fly!
Just using Tulsa because it's the middle of the country. Also, the reason for trying to plan this so far in advance is to get the best price on anything we have to book, which is mostly just the airfare.
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I'm open to any and all ideas and whatever the majority decides I'll be on board with. We can go anywhere and do anything but cost is my number one concern. Number two concern? A good schedule that we can go by so we don't waste any, any time.
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