Intro Blog: Greetings From Miami

CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi begins her five-part series Monday on how Americans are coping with the high price of gas.

We're about to start a five day road trip from Miami to Massachusetts to look at different ways gas prices are changing America — and I've got to tell you already things are getting interesting.

Today, we woke up at 4:00a.m. to make the two and a half hour trip to Fort Meyers, Fla. to shoot the first part of our story.

We drove around Fort Meyers most of the day and then headed back to Miami. Pretty normal stuff.

We thought it would be fun, as part of the tour, to compare three vehicles and their fuel economy.

I'm driving in a Honda Accord with my producer, our photographer is chugging along in a Ford Expedition and our editor will be in a hybrid Toyota Prius.

We wanted to "officially" start the trip on Monday with our gas gauges at empty, so today we rode around on fumes. Turns out, we rode around on fumes a little too long.

All I can say is that a "push" may or may not have been involved. No one can prove anything. I've been sworn to secrecy.

Eventually, we made it to the gas station safely and somehow, it seemed the perfect way to start off the tour.

With gas at $3 a gallon, a lot of people are riding around on fumes these days. Here's hoping most drivers can negotiate that better than this crew. And if somehow you don't, then push. There's no shame.

We hope you'll follow along with us all this week on the CBS Evening News and e-mail us along the way at eyeontheroad@cbs.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Sharyn Alfonsi