Four Bucks a Day Aspect

One of the things I find myself highlighting when I talk about the book is how we were on a scant budget of four dollars a day.  It’s one of those amazing facts that seem so unreal in today’s world of mass inflation and over-protective financial security.  Yet, true.  We carried it in traveler’s cheques. We operated quite well on four dollars a day, and usually stayed well below it. Of course, I needn’t mention prices back then weren’t what they are today.  But the other aspect is we didn’t have a lot of need to spend money.  It wasn’t a sight-seeing tour . . . we were out there to put miles under our belts. We never paid for a motel, of course.  We never paid for a ride (two exceptions were by public bus:  when the guys go from downtown San Francisco to Golden Gate Park; and in Hollywood when Roger pays 85 cents to get himself back to Huntington Beach). There were no souvenirs, no film other than the one roll in my camera, no new clothes, not even payment for a phone call. So money was quite under control, thank you!