For most of the trip we booked hotel reservations in advance, and it was only the last two nights that we arranged for accommodations "on the fly."  Overall, this was an advantage, I feel, as it meant that we had a place to stay even when we arrived late, and we could easily do comparison shopping.  On the other hand, it did inhibit our flexibility.  And I don't think that there would have been much problem in finding a place to stay in most of the places we stopped.  Some of the stops, especially in the smaller www.poloralphlaurenaustralia.biz western locations, appeared also to have good looking "mom-and-pop" motels which were likely to have been even more economical.  But we limited our choices to national "economy" chains -- Super 8, Econolodge, Days Inns, Motel 6 -- and made the final decisions (where there was a choice) based on cost.  Surprisingly, we found a wide variation in quality among these chains, even within the same brand and cost, which I comment on in the log notes.