According to the inflation calculator - What cost $300 in 1972 would cost $1648.32 in 2013. Gas in 1972 was still $.36 so that today if gas had simply increased in value with inflation is should be $1.98 in 2013
His trip was 13,000 miles - from what I can find a Ford van in 1972 - we do not know how old - but using the Ford van 1971 it got 12-17 mpg. Lets say it gets 15 mpg -
the math is easier - that's 867 gallons using the $.36 He spent $312. on gas - coffee was still a nickle a cup however, he had some repairs on the van and back then photographs meant the cost of film and processing. The average income in 1972 was less then 10,000 a year $9,something. He may have just squeezed through if he earned another $220 so that he had a tad over $200 for food, van repair and incidentals.
Found a photo of a 1971 Ford Van -
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/CC-178-078-950.jpgI can see why he did not want to stay in a motel in NY the cost would have been more than he could handle where as in Vermont it would probably be next to nothing. Wait found it in 1972 a Motel 8 cost $8.88
Whew JoanP
3 hours - Holy Hannah - I will attempt bits at a time however thanks for finding this - sounds like lots of answers explaining his viewpoint.
I wonder if this is the same interview - since we can read a lot faster than someone can speak I may be able to read this in far less then the 3 hours -
http://artfuldodge.sites.wooster.edu/content/william-least-heat-moon 
Callie I too was thinking cynical and trying to cover it with ahum 'innocent curiosity'... ah so... I think his New England work ethic is how he measured the Cherokee forgetting they were very successful farmers in the southeast before they were forced off their land where farming did not entail the hard scrubbed life of a New England farmer however, in the dry OK landscape they had very different land and weather challenges along with many other challenges.
I always admired how Cherokee villages were either a red or white village. The government and protection for anyone in a white village was predicated on peace where as a red village trained their young men for war. A medicine chief would resolve disputes between the Red Chief and White Chief should they disagree.
The idea that there were entire villages established for peaceful living within a culture that acknowledged a war like nature that is also accommodated is an amazing bit of social philosophy among those we considered an ignorant people. And yes, it all came to an end with Andrew Jackson wanted an end to the Indian wars among the Red Stick villages (war clubs painted red)and so with those Creeks and Cherokee supporting the US government a way of life was defeated in 1814.
From the written interview with Least Heat-Moon I get the impression searching for his native roots was not most important, that he was very impressed reading as a younger man
Travels with Charley - He talks about loneliness - I think to me that was making a mountain out of a molehill but than, as a young wife and mother living far from my family I refused loneliness and filled my life. So the idea of giving into loneliness to me is just not living a very creative life with all there is to admire, and learn and see - In fact when I first felt so isolated I would rail how I was educated in the same way as guys who left their home each day for their work - no one prepared me for the isolation but, like most of us in the 1950s we took ourselves in hand and made our own life. And so justifying loneliness because another author of a travel book also spoke of loneliness hit me as wimpy. And no, Dime Box never became a tourist attraction as he imagined.
