I like the idea of getting to meet other homeschoolers, but here's something I've learned since we got this big rig. If we park somewhere without hook-ups (no sewer, water or electricity) then we have to run our generator for power, which burns diesel - now $4.20/gallon where we are! Also, we have to use our propane for heat at night instead of an electric blanket or space heater - over $3.50/gallon. And...we have to pack up and run all the slides in and drive somewhere so we can unload all of our waste water every 2 or 3 days and fill our tanks with fresh water. In the long run it's not too much cheaper to "boondock" and it's often a lot of trouble.

I am very excited about your concept here, and I am a professional graphic designer. If you need a logo, I would be glad to offer my serviced to you free of charge.

You can check out my site at www.dan-bernardo.com to see some of my work.

Dan

Dan,
That is a very generous offer! We put several hours into coming up with a logo, but never quite came up with something we liked. The closest we got was a curved line, like a skewed S, that represented a road, with a colored dot on it, that represented the bus, set inside a circle or square of color, representing the things we were seeing as we drove by. We never found a way to get Driven to Educate to fit. We prefer geometric, clean lines. We're also kind-of partial to red/white/and blue, or colors similar to the ones on our site.
So there you have it - those were our thoughts on a logo. We'd love to see what a real professional comes up with compared to our feeble attempts. Use this link to send me your email address or any ideas you have and we'll discuss it off-line.
http://www.driventoeducate.com/component/option,com_contact/task,view/contact_id,1/Itemid,67/

ivector wrote:

QUOTE:
Campground fees are higher than we expected - often about $30/night and in major metropolitan areas up to $60/night!

How much are you seeing the cost of overnighting at state or national parks?

Also, Its generally free to boondock at a Walmart (as long as you ask - some can not allow it because of local laws). Granted, you would not want to do this all the time, but you could do it one night and pay to camp the next night. You also might want to see about the cost of solar panels to provide electrical independence, and also look at catalytic heaters.

Unfortunately, you are moving too quickly to get deals for staying a week or a month at a time.

But good luck!

Walter

Some of the state parks are more affordable. The last one we checked into was near Washington DC. We ended up paying more and staying closer to town because when you factor in the cost of transportation and parking it was equal. The closer park was on the bus route, so we didn't have to drive anywhere or pay to park. Just get a bus token and jump on the bus. Otherwise we'd be fighting traffic and paying to park. The state park would have been a nicer setting I'm sure. Many of the more convenient RV parks are more like large parking lots - the sites are close together and the trees are scarce. But, all in all, we had a good experience. We did, however, end up leaving DC a week ahead of schedule because of money. Just too expensive.
We also have to factor in the size of our rig (we're too big for some parks) and many of them have no hook-ups, like you said. Boondocking is OK for a night or so, but we've found it's no fun to roll everything in just to drive somewhere to dump and take on water and then drive back to your site every other day. Becomes very tedious and honestly it's just not worth the trouble.
Right now our biggest problem is gas. We budgeted $3.00/gallon back when it was $2.80. Well, the last time we filled the tank diesel was $4.29/gallon! That's killing the budget!

I read that you left Washington early so does that mean that you will be getting to Denver earlier than expected?