Who's to say that's a waste? If she had $1600 worth of fun, then it wasn't a waste. Our Electronic Warfare Officer blew $6000 in 8 days in Australia on leave. He had a lot of fun. Don't be so damn judgemental.

I've got to agree with the other guy - not a waste as long as she felt she got her money's worth out of the weekend. My wife and I dropped several grand (in total) to go to Ireland for about a week. Loved it and we're planning our next trip now (might be Iceland, Scotland, or the Caribbean - not sure).

BTW - for those asking, the last gas price I heard for boat fuel was around $4.75/gallon. That would mean she managed to blow roughly 336.8 gallons of gas. Or, assuming 16 hours of the boat moving for three days, 7 gallons an hour (48 total hours, which probably overstates the number of hours).

It's a lot of fuel, to be sure - but it's her money. Hopefully she showed the girls to others in the area as well...

Not a waste? What absolute gluttony is more like it.

There's a gigantic difference between spending thousands of dollars to go someplace you've never been like Ireland or Australia (which I can justify), and someone blasting through 300 gallons of gasoline because they wanted to sit out in the lake.

You could drive across the country, from Atlantic to Pacific, at least once on what this woman burned through sitting on a lake. It may be her money, but it's the rest of us who will pay in the long run, because of people like that.

No wonder the rest of the world hates us.

Go turn your thermostat to 90 like your Messiah told you to, to make up the difference.

What in the hell are you talking about?

I was responding to WilMac's worry that France is gonna hate us even more now because of that lady's boat. His fearless leader Obama already told him how to take care of this situation. Walk to work, eat fish heads and rice, and crank up the thermostat.

This is all a relative concept. Sure - I could drive across the country for less gas than that, but that doesn't mean I'd enjoy it any more than she enjoyed her weekend on the lake.

If you're attempting to make the green argument about not wasting gas, realize that what she did (while large in a specific sense) isn't what's truly wasteful overall. There are much bigger fish to fry in this - hell, owning an Xterra is likely a much bigger waste of fuel over the course of a year than her boat when one compares it to a 30mpg car. In fact, if she did this twice a year, you could personally make up the difference if you drove 24K miles in a 30mpg car vs your Xterra.

I don't know your personal situation as to whether or not this might directly apply, but look at the big picture rather than a specific incident.

And no - there is absolutely no moral difference between my trip to Ireland and her weekend. None.

Cool - that clears it up a bit. Though there is some merit to conservation (and even though I drive said Xterra, I'm all about it) both economically and financially, I'm all about the market. Until prices are high enough to force change, change isn't going to happen.

For all of you boat newbs out there, bigger party boats are NOT measured in "miles per gallon." I'm a paid charter/excursion captain for some of the 30 to 40 foot sailboats that tour the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior out of Bayfield Wisconsin. Trust me, we get the sails up on those bitches AS SOON AS we leave the harbor.

Your average 35 foot twin engine cabin cruiser gets MAYBE .6 (that's POINT SIX, as in 6/10) knautical miles per gallon of fuel. Usually, those boats have 300 gallon tanks. Your effective cruising range is less than 200 miles. My neighbor told me he'd be "doing a lot of drifting and anchoring this year."

When you consider that those boats cost somewhere in the $250,000 range (used), and another $1,000 to $2,000 per month to store it in a managed harbor or marina, then $1500 for gas to spend a day on the lake isn't too bad.

Unless you're Willmac... then all boat owners should sell their boats and pool the money into a fund that should feed more welfare babies and to give sterile needles to addicts, and to build more government to supervise such foolishness as "boating."

Holy crap dude! I'm so sorry, it must've slipped my mind: I didn't get a hall pass from you to see if I could drive my Xterra to the lake this weekend. Is that OK? Can you please justify my consumption of approximately 35 gallons of fuel over the next 4 days, or do I need to go some place that you've already certified as an appropriate travel destination?

Justification? Shit, my company spent $900 for an airline ticket and over $1,800 for hotel and expenses for me to travel to Seattle to teach ONE student a five day class. I lobbied against it, told them I'd be happy to stay at home and use WEBEX or something to take him through the class online. Nope, the justification was (with respect to Wilmac), "The customer wants it this way."

The customer paid 5k per student for the class, so my company made money. That's all the "justification" they needed.

Wilmac.... What the hell is wrong with you?

That woman has every right to buy and use as much fuel as she wishes. She's paying for it with HER money and using it on HER boat, paid for with HER money.

It's called FREEDOM. Are you saying you are against freedom? It sure seems that way.

Should people be "rationed" fuel according to whatever crazy justifications your totalitarian mindset dreams up?

You sound like a liberal fascist. An "Obamunist".

Gotta go with the mad one here. I noticed Moab isn't on your list of approved destinations.
You going to boycott Nissan for GONE? FUCKSTICK!!!

Listen up tweedledicks:

I never said the woman didn't have a right to do as she pleased.

I was just amazed that someone could blast through that much gasoline in a weekend.

She has every right to do what she wants to do. And I have every right to call her a glutton. End of story.

And we have every right to point at that you aren't much different than her, just spreading your usage out over a bit longer time.

I walk to work.

I take the X out only maybe once a month anymore, BECAUSE of gas prices.

I'm doing my part. What are you doing?

Uhmm, let's review this thread. You came in, jumped on your high horse, called her a glutton, etc. I defended her right and showed that it's absolutely no different than any other use of money. I don't have to prove that I'm doing a damn thing as I'm not the one with the position to defend.

Having an Xterra, and driving it maybe once a month.

Tsk, tsk.

Talk about wasteful.

I am looking at getting an Excursion soon. Woot!

--My wife and I each work about 15 miles from home.
--In fact, my wife's office is 2 miles from my office.
--I spend my entire day in a cubicle, in front of a computer.
--If I needed to, I could ride in to work with my wife, spend the day like normal, and ride home with her, using only one car and half the fuel.

But I don't.

You are the great ex-Canadian Satan!

In that instance, I might think about commuting together, assuming that the work schedule allows it.

Personally, I'm thinking of getting a bike or an older motorcycle and riding that to work most days. It'd likely pay for itself within a year (definitely for the bike, potentially for the cycle). What makes the pay-off slower is that I only live 4 miles away.

However, my reasons for doing this are (and in this order):

• economic
• convenience
• health related (I play soccer, lift weights, jog, etc., so this is just one more piece to help keep me in shape)
• environmental

This doesn't mean I hate the environment. What it does mean is that I realize there are much better ways for me to help the environment than reducing my commute.

I am at that.

Pardon me, I need to drive to the Walgreens across the street and idle my vehicle for about 15 minutes whilst I go in and buy something to make me overly flatulent, thereby generating more than my fair share of methane.

BIAB.

Warning: Thread chock full of liberal douchebaggery.

Boy, am I looking forward to a week long houseboat trip to Lake Mead in September, 2009 with 11 of my closest friends. Better call OPEC ahead of time and make sure the spigots are on full blast before we go and drive several V6 and V8 powered vehicles up there to take the week off.

In all seriousness I would like to get a more fuel efficient vehicle for the commute. I am trying for a bike, but the wife is not going for it.