$300 Travel: The Cheap and Wild Side of Bakersfield

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I love the concept of a $300 silk-purse-from-sow's-ear trip. Since I have to go to the Milwaukee Airport, I'm incorporating a sidetrip to beautiful downtown Oshkosh, Wisconsin. You can figure out the gas (about 4 hours highway driving roundtrip in a Jeep that gets about 21 mpg highway).

First stop: The Paine Art Center and Gardens for their French Impressionists exhibit and a walk around their gardens. Admission for family of four: $18.

Next up: the authentically 1950's Ardy & Ed's Drive In for my rootbeer and hamburger delivered to the Jeep by a rollerskating waitress. Estimated lunch bill for family of four: $25

Unbuttoning our waistbands, we roll a total of 1/2 a mile to Hughes Homaid Chocolate Shop for a homaid chocolate or two. Estimated cost for four pieces of chocolate: let's say $5. We could windowshop at the divine architectural salvage shop after. Cost: nothing.

Suitably fortified, we are ready to face the Milwaukee Airport Hotel to rest up for an early morning flight. Add dinner at whatever Applebee's/Denny's-type restaurant for four and you're looking at upwards of $160