Well, the longest I'd consider driving for a weekend regatta is about 800 miles round trip. At $7 a gallon, 7 MPG, that comes out to $800 just for gas in the RV. If I take the Explorer, that would be about $400, leaving $400 for a hotel (which would more than pay for the hotel). Of course, there's no room in the Explorer for 2 adults, a baby, a babysitter and all our stuff to be comfortable for an 8-hour drive each way.

So, at that point, it gets extremely hard to justify for a weekend regatta without getting sponsors involved (good luck with that since the economy will be in the toilet at that point, food prices, etc.).

Mike