Timing is everything!

LOS ALAMOS, NM—There is great woe and gnashing of teeth these days about the rising costs of energy. People are making big changes to their lives. Up to a point.

Some people refuse to give up driving a block away to get groceries or snag a pack of cigarettes. Some people are reluctant to downsize their Megapickups into smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. We have refused to deprive ourselves of our annual road trip.

Silly us.

We hit the road the day crude oil—the backbone of the traditional American Road Trip—hit another historic high, topping $140 a barrel and guaranteeing that our budget for our asphalt odyssey would be busted right off the bat.

Though I have always been a fan of President Ulysses S. Grant, it's difficult to keep seeing his stern green-tinted mug every time I fill up. For those of you who have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, think two Jacksons and a Hamilton and a single salty tear running down your face as you withdraw the pump nozzle from the side of your car.

"Thank you, Sir, may I have another!" you squeal as the stark plank of reality blisters your buttocks again and again and again each time you view the familiar red, white and blue Exxon logo through a well of tears.

It's getting expensive to drive, yet the highways still seem choked with vehicles, mostly big ones. America must be filled with calloused asses these days, which is probably why Road Rage is at an all time high.

Unless you take the proper Counter Measures, that is.

After our first fill up, three hundred miles north of tiny Los Alamos, we began formulating a cost-containment plan to help recoup some of the stunning losses we would suffer while on the road this time around.

Just south of Dove Creek, Colo., we found ourselves in the heart of Pinto Bean Country. Here in this pastoral land, where traffic is light and the sun is high and bright, a person can walk right into a warehouse and walk out with a huge sack of beans, which is exactly what we did, further reducing the gas mileage of our vehicle, but ensuring that our next six months of meals would be thrifty and wholesome.

When we return from our travels, we will be as gassy as Saudi Arabia. But, alas, those are tales for another time. Right now we are focusing on getting some distance between us and the Land of Enchantment, so we are spending long hours on the road, listening to the monotonous rumble of rubber on asphalt.

As long as we can find WiFi and scrape together enough resources to bed down for the night in civilized locations, we will update you on our progress. The North holds much promise, and we intend to fully explore what it has to offer. So stay tuned and travel vicariously with us as we travel the highways and biways of a land where dusk doesn't end until 10 p.m. and the hillsides still have snow. That way you can travel without having to fill up!

See you on down the road.