It's not really a shocker that the price of gas has jumped as it has over the past two weeks. My question is what, if any, lifestyle changes have been made due to the price. Are travel plans for them summer being modified?

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Life is too short for drama & petty things!
So, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly!

Mine are. I'm planning a few trips within Minnesota and western Wisconsin, places I can get to on less than a tank of gas. I plan to take my grandson and 2 of his friends to the caves near Spring Valley, WI. Then up to Duluth. There are some caves in southern MN I want to visit. The Minnesota Arboretum. There is a lot to see and do locally, no matter where you live, IMHO.

Gas here is $3.45 today.

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Nell

More women die of lung cancer than breast cancer. If you smoke, quit. If you don't, don't start.

Friends never lets friends drive drunk.

Now that I am retired I was hoping to do some traveling and visit some friends and family that live all over the country. Now if we go anywhere it will be short trips and visiting over the phone.

I don't plan to give those greedy *&^#@%&* a nickle more than I have to.

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God and the Soldier we all adore,
In times of trouble and then no more
when war is over and all things righted
God is forgotten, the old soldier Slighted.

$3.99 for regular today in Mountain View, CA !!! Over $4.00 for premium... But we're always paying that much more than you are...I don't know why though...there's a large Chevron refinery only 50 miles from here.

But I'll continue to pay and pay and pay...and complain and complain and complain (the Message Board didn't allow me to use the word b*t*h) !!!

I really only blame myself for allowing this to happen over the past 30+ years by electing those IDIOTS to office who only look after their own backsides by not passing any intelligent energy bills, not building any new refineries or nuclear power plants, caving into the radical environmentalists and oil companies, not allowing drilling off the coasts or ANWR, and just ignoring the whole energy problem in general.

We are now paying the price. It will only get worse.

But will it alter my 'travel' plans? I doubt it. When I gas up I'll just pay, complain, and drive on.

(The National Debt is another issue that the politicians are completely ignoring...but that's another post. And this one will bite us big time...count on it.)

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Ken Martell
kenmartell@gmail.com
Thankful to be alive and healthy. Proud to call Tomahawk my hometown.

I'd like to echo Ken's comments. What did we learn after the last oil embargo? Nothing.

Once prices returned to "normal", it seems like the exploration into alternative energy sources, expanded exploration for oil & natural gas, new efficient refineries, expansion of nuclear energy slowed to a near halt.

We'll be in the Tomahawk area for a week this summer. Then trips to colleges our daughter is considering will be our only major driving excursions. After visiting Duluth two summer's ago I'd love to go back, but with gas prices what they are it'll be doubtful for awhile.

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What if there were no hypothetical questions?

I remember shortly after I was married - 24 years ago - and gas went over $1.00/gallon. I was horrified! Oh, to go back to those days! Now, it is totally out of control.

I live near Chippewa Falls, and just told my mom in Tomahawk, that I really don't know the next time we'll be visiting - in large part due to gas prices. We also have become very good at consolidating trips to Eau Claire and such, but it gets difficult. For example, this week my daughter and I both have Dr. appointments in Eau Claire - that's two 40-mile round trips. I'm just sick about it, but what can you do? Then, there's my seventeen-year-old son who is working for $6.50 an hour and hasn't been able to save much at all. Most of it goes right back into his gas tank!

A local television station recently interviewed a supplier who said the prices we're dealing with has nothing to do with supply and demand. He blames in on the ease of trading in the oil business. Regardless, something needs to change, and I hope the general public looks very carefully at who they are voting for in the fall.

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MimiB

Like Mary, we have been trying to combine as many errands as possible. I work in Eau Claire and have a nearly 50 mile round trip commute daily. As many errands that can be are done before I leave the city. We are fortunate to have numerous suitable campgrounds within an hour of home, these will most likely be our destination this summer. Actaully one weekend may be to Lake Wissota State Park, 5 miles from home. Hey, it's camping, guess it really doesn't matter where! My husband seems to think our fall trip to Razorback Lake near Sayner will have to be put on hold. I'm thinking I would rather make some other sacrifices rather than give up our fall trip. Things like Friday night dinner out, more coupon clipping, adding grounds to yesterday's pot of coffee (it worked during the deperssion), haircuts every 6 weeks rather than 4. Not that I relish the thought of giving my hard earned money to the oil companies, however, special times in life shouldn't be passed up, life is too short.

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Life is too short for drama & petty things!
So, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly!

My goodness, Deb... where do you live? We're also about five miles from Lake Wissota State Park. We're between Jim Falls and Cadott off of HWY K.

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MimiB

Mary, we're between K and O on 210th Street! Howdy neighbor! We have a Cadott address, Jim Falls phone number but we're in the Chippewa school district. Which goes to show all roads lead to Tomahawk or Cadott, however you wish to look at it.

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Life is too short for drama & petty things!
So, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly!

I'm in Southern California (just outside of LA) and our gas prices are outrageous! $3.83 for regular, $4.39 for diesel. We have already made modifications to our lifestyle because of the gas prices. We regularly camped (2-3 times/month) and that has been scaled back to once every 4-6 weeks. Also, summer plans are being scaled back, we generally return to the Northwoods around the 4th of July, but with skyrocketing airfare we likely won't be able to make that trip this year either.

SDO, how lucky for you to live in a climate that allows you to camp 2-3 times per month. I can see with gas prices that the avid campers may need to change to a different mode of camping. I wonder if those that camp in big RVs or motorhomes will consider down sizing. I have also wondered if those obnoxious, over crowded campgrounds with waterparks will feel the crunch this summer. (Just my opinion, the obnoxious part.) I can see these types of places needing to create some attractive packages to entice young families on a limited budget.

Funny how the mode of campinghas changed over the past 6-7 years. When we went from a tent to a pop-up we were, for the most part, one of a handful in a camper. The majority were tenters. Last Memorial Day we were definitely the white trash with a pop-up in a campground not designed for the big rigs, most were just that. I can see people needing to return to a more simplistic style of camping.

_________________
Life is too short for drama & petty things!
So, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly!

We've talked a lot on this post about how the higher gas prices will affect our travel type plans. Mostly, I think, we can all deal with these prices by some adjustments in our travel behavior.

My main concern is how much those prices will affect the trucking and airline industry. So much of everything we eat and use everyday is brought to us by truck, plane, or train.

This is where we're all going to really feel the pinch. Paying a few dollars more to fill up our tanks may be the least of our worries concerning the rise in the cost of gasoline.

A side note: The latest crime in the San Jose area is now the siphoning of gas from trucks and RVs. Thieves either just remove the gas cap or cut into the gas line to drain the gas out. There’s been a big run on locking gas caps in the auto stores…

Is nothing sacred anymore!!!

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Ken Martell
kenmartell@gmail.com
Thankful to be alive and healthy. Proud to call Tomahawk my hometown.

I have a feeling we'll see increased shipping by railroad.

_________________
Life is too short for drama & petty things!
So, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly!

I am very lucky to be able to camp so often, it's our saving grace to be able to get out of the city and "rough" it every few weeks! We just upgraded from tent, or back of the truck as we did it, camping last year and purchased a small (19') camping trailer. While we can now camp in luxury (the trailer was worth every penny for the bathroom!) we're still very minimal compared to others we see out there (no tvs, we don't use our generator from 7am-10pm, etc.). When we were shopping around the salesmen teased us for purchasing such a small trailer because my husband's truck could tow so much more, they didn't understand that we didn't want more than we needed...

As far as traditional campgrounds it will be interesting to see if there is a decline. We rarely camp that way, we usually go out to the open desert, but as summer approaches that won't be an option anymore, and we'll test our luck on finding a beach spot (which is normally booked a year in advance out here).

As far as other increases, we're starting to feel it here already. I mentioned in my earlier post that we'll likely have to cut our annual 4th of July trip to the Northwoods this year because of airfare, and groceries are already starting to increase (and they were already more expensive than "back home" prices). I already vanpool to work, have a low gas mileage car, changed my lightbulbs, watch my spending, cut back on trips, etc. It's going to be interesting to see how much more we can take out here...

Gas price dropped to $3.42 a gallon today in Uptown Minneapolis. (woot woot)

I stopped driving myself to work back in January, company carpool lasted until about a month ago. Now that its warm, I enjoy a nice walk or bicycle ride every morning and evening. Works out great for now, as traffic drives me crazy. At this point, I spend a little bit more on groceries and such by shopping at stores within walking distance. My car looks awful lonely in the parking lot these days

I do still take at least a short drive once a week, just to make sure she still starts. And I still drive home to Tomahawk every 6 weeks or so....

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"Be excellent to each other." - Bill S Preston, Esquire & Ted "Theodore" Logan

Deb, you ask if there are any lifestyle changes on the horizon. And you did mention coupon clipping, adding yesterdays coffee grounds to the pot, etc. I believe a lifestyle change should be to slow down the pace of your travels. Leave 15 minutes earlier on a one hour trip, a half hour earlier on a two hour trip, etc. Reason being, it has been tried and tested that cutting back on your highway speed to 55 MPH from 65 MPH will give you 20% better miles per gallon. That calculates out to quite a nice savings for every gallon at the pump.
P.S. Can anyone with a better math mind than mine actually calculate that out in actual savings?

Good point Catfish. It needs to be everyone. Back in the 70's when gas supply first became an issue speed limits were at 65 on most state 2 lane highways, 55 at night, the reduction of 55 all the time was to save gas. Which I believe it did.

The majority of my drive to work is 4 lanes, if I drove 55 rather than the posted 65 and were to get stopped for driving below the posted I would probably be stopped and field sobriety done. I know of this happening to folks. Telling an officer you are trying to conserve doesn't fly.

So I guess the bottom line is were're darned if we do and darned if we don't.

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Life is too short for drama & petty things!
So, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly!

The price of gas will no doubt alter a lot of travel plans and I agree with Ken that the price of filling our tanks will be minimal compared to the over all price we will pay for other goods and services. Some believe it is headed to a price equal to what they pay in Europe, $7-$8 a gallon (liter adjusted).

I also have a few questions for anyone that cares to weigh in.

First, are the gas companies really to blame? If anyone of us owned that gas, would we not charge what the market will bear?

I'm not suggesting the oil companies are without some blame, but the majority of the blame should go to our complacent attitude and love of our cushy life style and refusing to demand change.

Second, how many of us are complaining about several times that amount for Starbucks Coffee or designer waters? And driving down to the corner 7/11 in our gas guzzler to buy them. Not to mention those $4 a pack cigarettes.

For you that live in California, you will remember when the environmental movement back in the 80's and 90's ran the major oil companies out of some areas of California. There were bumper stickers going around Santa Barbara county that read: "Iraq H*ll, bomb Santa Barbara". (Santa Barbara, the city, is a hot-bed of the anti-oil exploration).