Because we don't like to deal with the traffic and because our town has an enormous fireworks display, we usually stick around town during the Fourth. We noticed, though, that a lot of other people stayed home last weekend, too. Our normal haunts, which typically would have been somewhat busy, were overwhelmingly crowded. In a state notorious for its northbound traffic on summer weekends, it seems like a lot of people decided to stay put instead.On Friday, I canceled an upcoming camping trip due to a conflicting obligation. The woman on the other end of the phone sighed. "Can you please tell me," she asked, "Is it because of the gas prices? Because you're the fourth cancellation this morning and we're starting to keep track."
Though it's painful every time I have to fill up our gas tank, I can't really say that the gas prices have slowed us down that much this summer. But after this weekend, I'm starting to wonder if people are staying home to save money. We've talked about staycations before at ParentDish, and we're talked about them again this week. So I'm curious what other families have to say. Are gas prices keeping you home this summer?
1. At the very least, the price of gas is stopping us from using the car for spontaneous trips. It`s no longer feasible to just say "Hey! Let`s go down to the ocean!" or just randomly take a mountain drive. We have to plan for the gas expense, That means that the whole trip has to be planned, so fewer trips are made. Back when gas prices were lower (they were never *low* here - we live outside the US) it was easy to just absorb the cost of an extra tank`s worth if we drove more than usual in a month... But now it`s not, as the price has nearly doubled.
We`re very lucky to have access to an extensive nationwide public transportation system - I really feel for those without one.
Posted at 8:44PM on Jul 12th 2008 by Tamyu