Road Trip! But First, Saving Money as You Plan I'm not really your drive-across-America type - more of a train-through-India or Bolivia-by-bus kind of traveler. But I've long wanted to do a road trip in Texas. For someone like me, who has never lived west of the Hudson, it's perhaps the most fascinating state in the nation. It's vast without being empty, associated with powerful American symbols like cowboy boots and pickup trucks and high school football, carries more than half our border with Mexico, has at least a claim on the nation's best barbecue (not to mention all that Tex-Mex), and has a long, complicated and fascinating history. It's at once as American as apple pie and as alien as another planet. And so, as you'll read in the coming weeks, I decided to try my hand at a car trip across a portion of the state. Let's go! Not so fast, pardner. Road trips aren't necessarily cheap, so before we get on the road, let's discuss the best ways to save money on car trips. First, pick a length for your trip. My choice was nine days, straddling two weekends. Then pick a start and end point, preferably the same one, since you're just asking to pay more if you need to book two one-way flights and return a rental car far from where you got it. And preferably make it a place you'd like to visit, as well, since you'll be spending time there whether you like it or not. I chose Austin, a much-beloved city by all who know it (you'll be reading about my time there in next week's column). Frontier Airlines has round-trip flights from New York, with a stopover in Kansas City, that are frequently under $300. Next, design a route. Seeing the whole state, which is bigger than France, wasn't an option. So I rummaged through Texas guidebooks and Web sites and picked out a few places in Central and West Texas that sounded either quirky or beautiful - Hill Country, Big Bend National Park, the Rio Grande, the artsy town of Marfa and (what the heck) the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco. Then I tried to connect the dots on a map without using boring Interstates; that added one other interesting destination I'd never heard of: San Angelo, home to the well-preserved Fort Concho, an important site back when Texas was frontier country and the Apaches weren't too keen on the whole Manifest Destiny thing. Time to cook up an approximate budget. That $300 or so for airfare was already gone. I turned to researching the cheapest car rental rates on a site like Kayak and then underbid those offers on Priceline. It looked as if I could get a compact for a week for around $200; I paid with a credit card that covered collision or loss, plus third-party liability insurance for maybe $120 more. I could have rented a GPS, but a good old paper map from the first gas station I found and Google Maps on my phone would do just fine. I was, though, fearful of huge gas expenditures, since I estimated I'd be driving around 1,200 miles. As it turned out, the calculations weren't too bad: Texas gas prices are averaging around $3.25 per gallon, and I estimated that I'd get about 30 miles to the gallon, for a total of about $130. Make that $124 or so, since my Chase Freedom card is offering 5 percent cash back on all gas charges between January and March. Good timing, Chase! For lodging, I decided to allot myself $50 a night - $300 total - and tried to vary it up, hoping to avoid six straight nights in roadside motels, which average around that much. I decided to try to land a free spot in Waco through CouchSurfing, and to stay in a tent or yurt at the quirky El Cosmico in Marfa for $60 plus tax. San Angelo looked to be full of chain motels - a good place to use Priceline again - and Google showed that the Big Bend region was dotted with independent motels. Then there was food and miscellaneous expenses, like the $20 I'd need to get into Big Bend National Park. I allotted $30 a day total. For my weekend in Austin at one end or the other, I figured I'd do a Frugal Traveler-patented $100 weekend. Over nine days, all-included, I was shooting for $1,400. A bit pricey for one person, perhaps, but not terrible. And good news for non-loners: adding a second person should add no more than another $300 plane ticket and maybe an added $150 for food. Next week: the Texas trip kicks off with a $100 weekend in Austin.