Car vs train across the United States

Which is when I realise that my proposed route back up to the distance-dilating I-80, which had looked like such an inconsequential cut-through on the map back in the UK, would probably take four hours of vertical map travel. So we are forced into a demoralising and time-consuming 90-minute backtrack down the mountains. The towns of Rifle, Battlement Mesa, Parachute and Palisade scroll by.

We eventually stop in a place called Grand Junction, Colorado and eat a thing called a steak burrito, which consists of two pounds of mixed meat and rice in a wrap. It sits heavily, especially when we check the satnav, late in the afternoon, and realise that we're not - quite - halfway. The train, as ever, has got ahead of us again. Morale, it has to be said, is not perky.