[zdragnar]

Very significant portions of the trip were between large cities. If we had had to zig-zag back and forth between cities with movie theaters or shopping malls that had charges, it would have added a significant number of hours to the trip.

Even with an ICE, there was a (small) amount of range anxiety, in that some areas had 30-45 miles between exits with gas stations near by. Get caught up in a podcast or some good music, and if you're not paying attention, it's not impossible to run out of gas out there.