after just reading through the pages of my amex statement from my 3 week flydrive at christmas i can symptathis ewith your thoughts, defintley not the bargain it would have been at $2/£ when i booked it, but as previous posters have mentionned food is still fiarly cheap compared to Uk, and certinaly on the west coast gas prices had come down was paying somehwere around $1.60 - $2.00 gallon. One of the things i did was look for cheaper deals on hotels, we were staying in mainly marriotts, that i had on cancelable rates, then kept looking for last minute deals, and if they were good cancelled the marriott booking and moved, or in some cases saem hotel but much better rate. This way at least i knew we had a room for a night, at a rate that was tolerable if not brilliant