Do you have any tips for saving money and successfully going on a pretty huge road trip?

I am trying to find a city in the US that I want to live in. As of now, it’s Boulder, Tucson, South Dakota, or SF. But, there are other places I feel like I might like to live in too, but I’ve never been to – Vermont, Portland OR, Seattle, who knows.

So, I want to do a final road trip with a friend before I settle down in one area. But this road trip would be pretty big…it would start in Pittsburgh and go through South and North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, up to Washington, down to San Francisco, hopefully through Death Valley and Arizona, then across Texas and back up to PA. Me and the same friend did a similar but not as big trip last summer, and it was a huge success.

This time, we plan to camp out a lot more than we did last time. Too much money is wasted on hotels. So anyhow, does anyone have any suggestions on other things that might save money? Cheaper ways to eat? I tend to spend most of my money on food, so thats always a problem for me. Or any good travel road trip web sites that might give me a little more direction when it comes to this.

Also, if you live in one of the places I mentioned, or anywhere else really, and you think it’s worth checking out, I’d like to hear about it.