May 16, 2008 7:38 PM
- Text
Mission Accomplished.
(CBS)
Jeff Glor: Our team began out west, where tall gas prices mean short vacations. Just look at Mike Morrasy. He packed up the RV, and drove a whole three miles away from home this year.
Nancy Cordes: After leaving New York's Central Park, our first stop was Pennsylvania's Hersey Park. It's one of those regional attractions that's banking on Americans staying closer to home this summer.
But the food industry may be feeling the pinch more painfully than anyone. At Kennedy's Bakery in Cambridge, Ohio, they're paying three times more for flour than they did last year.
"You can't raise prices enough, can you?" I asked Patty Kennedy, the owner.
"No, I can't, or else I'm going to loose all the customers," she said.
Glor: In Nevada, at least the leftover ingredients are put to good use. We witnessed the rise of veggie vehicles: Converted engines that run on grease.
One restaurant owner cooks the fries, then juices up his Jetta. And it gets 40 miles a gallon.
"I have to say there is a certain empowering moment when you flip the switch to grease because then you're driving for free," Trent Schmidt said.
On our last leg, a dirt track race in Kansas, where America's car culture is running on empty. The gas guzzlers used to go out six- nights a week. But that's now down to one.
Cordes: Our photographers could see the sticker shock as well. They drive SUVs loaded with gear. It cost them $590 to get halfway across the country. That's 30 cents per mile. My Ford Fusion cost less than 16 cents. Jeff's hybrid Prius cost less than 10 cents.
And that's despite the fact that Jeff was paying more for gas on the West Coast than we were on the East Coast.
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Nancy Cordes Nancy Cordes is CBS News' congressional correspondent.
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