Oregon Trail pt 1

I've decided I want to go to Oregon.  Right now I'm in the planning stages.  The first step in the planning stage is to figure out how much it is going to cost.  Some things I can anticipate, like gas and food, and other things, not so much, broken car.

I'm playing with the gas numbers right now.  According to Google Maps, the route I want to take is about 4,400 miles.
View Larger Map Add in all the extra driving I want to do, and we will say it is about 5,000 miles. Looking up the fuel economy for my car, it's 28 mpg. If I divide 5,000 miles by 28 mpg, I get that I would need 178.5 gallons of gas. Let's round that up to 180 gallons. WOW! I have a 13 gallon tank. wow. I did not know that. I'm too much of a chicken to let it get to E to find out. Let's just say I fill up at 11 gallons given I'll be out west and I hear gas stations are not on every corner. Oooo I didn't know I could go 328 miles on a tank. I start getting anxious at 260 miles and I can't breathe in the 270s... I digress. 180 gallons divided by 11 gallons per tank. 16.4 tanks. Or 17 tanks. hmmmm. Let's look at this another way. I need 180 gallons. Let's assume gas is $4 a gallon. That's $720 to just drive to there and back. Goodbye McDonalds...