Monday, June 23, 2008

GA$ PRICE$

Once upon a time, I would load up my baby daughter and drive from Tennessee to Central Illinois. The trip took almost 3 tanks of gas round trip. A tank of gas for my Chevy Cavalier in 1998 was around $30, the trip was just under $100 round trip.

As the price of gas grew proportionally to my daughter's legs, we had to get a four door vehicle. Round trip to Central Illinois was still 3 tanks of gas, and a tank of gas for a Pontiac Grand Prix in 2005 was about $45. Trip now is still well under $150.

With longer legs comes bigger bicycles and bigger suitcases, meaning traveling to Grandparents Camp is best done in daddy's pickup truck. Round trip to Central Illinois in a Ford F-150 is 4 tanks of gas, and in 2008 they cut you off at the gas tank when you hit $75. Round trip hit $300.

I've cancelled any further thoughts of a summer vacation, and am considering leaving her bike there so I can take my car when we go pick her up. It will be cheaper to buy her a new bike!

9 comments:

Skywise said...

well put Joyce- I just put in $71 this morning in my Toyota tundra (and that was still w/ 1/4 of a tank left.)

its' crazy- and if we'd acted earlier as a nation it might not have been AS bad...

great blog entry though!

Anonymous said...

I filled up the tank of my Camry yesterday that was only 3/4 empty, and was cut off at $50. Luckily, I don't usually do a lot of driving and only need to fill up every two weeks.

Hope you had a great weekend with your new nephew...expecting pictures.

Paula

Anonymous said...

Wow I've never had a gas pump cut me off at a certain point. How strange. And its takes over $80 to fill the van up.

It was over $75 to fill my truck up on Saturday and with as many trips as I have back into San Antonio this week I'll probably have to fill up again before Saturday. The oldest can work but can't drive because its her right foot that is broken so I'm back to playing chauffer

Anonymous said...

We hit $4.00 here, so I'm working from home half the week. Unfortunately I can't show houses by bus, but I am riding with my clients more and more.

Anonymous said...

If you can find it, a good price for the cheap stuff here is $4.06/gallon. The worst I've seen it is $4.09/gallon.

DaveBrz said...

Average price here in CT is $4.36 for regular.

Anonymous said...

I paid $4.47 in Chicago last week. It's hovering around $4.11 on the North Shore of MA. Good times. And makes me thankful I can ride my bike to work. :)

Producer J. said...

$4.36!!!!! OMG

Anonymous said...

Here in Australia, after doing the conversion, we are at $6.24 per gallon!!!!!