SandCamp or bust . . .

At the meeting on Wednesday, I promised I would post something so that we could organize going to SandCamp and reducing costs as much as possible. Well, here it is. :^)

Introduction:
There are two areas of interest in costs and reducing them as much as possible: travel and lodging. (Everything else is either pretty well covered, or on a person-by-person basis.)

Travel:
I can help with travel, for those who are willing to carpool. I have a 15 passenger van. I will be removing the last one or two benches to accommodate gear, so I will only have room for 8-11 people (depending on the number of benches I remove). Currently, I have three people who have confirmed that they are traveling with me (druplette and my two oldest sons), bringing the number of available seats down to 4-7. (It's kind of a catch-22 in that the more people there are, the more room is needed for gear, but I'm pretty good and solving puzzles, so I'm sure I'll figure it out. :^))

I figure the total cost for gasoline for my vehicle will be about $220.00. So at this point, each part is about $55.00. Obviously, the more people who are willing to help reduce the cost and share the expense, the lower that number will go.

Also, as an FYI, I will be driving there Friday morning, January 7 (no later than 10:00 AM) and driving back Monday morning, January 10. That way I can take full advantage of all events happening from the Friday night pre-/Drupal 7 release party to the final Sunday night event/party/whatever.

Lodging:
The bigger expense of this trip will be lodging. I'm considering taking tents and sleeping bags and getting a camp site at San Elijo State Beach Campground. That cost is $35.00 per campsite, per night for up to 8 people, which is not too bad, but that means sleeping outside in the winter, and the location is not really ideal, being about 30-35 minutes North of San Diego. I was hoping I could be a little closer to the venue so that I wouldn't spend so much time traveling and could spend more time hanging out with other Drupal enthusiasts. :^)

Someone at the meeting was talking about renting a largish house for the weekend and sharing expenses that way. If someone has details and/or connections on that and is willing to handle that aspect, that would be great.

Conclusion:
That's about all I have to say on those topics, for now. Please comment and expand on this conversation, so we can get a broader and more complete picture of the event.

Thank you.