Fuel prices don't stop travelers

By Jim Stafford

Published: November 23, 2007

On a blustery Thanksgiving eve, Eldon Alexander of Garden City, Kan., gripped the cold handle of a gasoline pump at the Love's Travel Stop on Interstate 35 Wednesday morning and shoved the nozzle into the fuel opening on his sports utility vehicle.

As gasoline poured into the vehicle at a cost of $2.88 per gallon, Alexander fumed.

"We don't like it,” he said of the price of fuel. "But when your father-in-law is 79 and his birthday is on Thanksgiving Day, you kind of just go ahead and go.”

Alexander and his wife, Terry, were traveling to Searcy, Ark., a 730-mile one-way trip. For the 1,460-mile roundtrip, Alexander can expect his fuel costs to total at least $210.24, based on average gas consumption of 20 mph and a price of $2.88.

"It really hurts,” said Alexander, who described himself as a farmer and rancher. "You are going to have to figure out how to earn some extra dollars to pay for it.”

Obviously, the price of gas didn't deter Alexander or any of the dozens of people waiting to fuel their vehicles Wednesday morning at the Love's station.

Perhaps it was the "bargain” price at the Love's station, which was far below the Oklahoma City average of $2.994 for regular unleaded on Wednesday, according to AAA.

Or maybe it was because Americans still find the value of traveling outweighs the hardships presented by rising fuel costs. A year ago Wednesday, regular unleaded in the Oklahoma City area was $2.068 per gallon.

"Our tolerance for high gas prices is greater than we like to think it is,” said AAA spokesman Chuck Mai, who cited a survey the automobile association conducted back when gas was at a $1.50 level to see what price would discourage Americans from driving.

"The response was $2-$2.50, and we will make serious changes in our lifestyle,” Mai said. "As we have experienced, the vast majority of Americans have not made changes in the traveling lifestyle.”

Traveling Americans fueling at the Love's store on Wednesday morning backed up Mai's assessment as the holiday approached.

Amy Church of Fort Worth, Texas, waited inside the store as her husband, Tom, pumped fuel into their vehicle for a holiday trip to Topeka, Kan.

Did rising fuel prices cause them to hesitate in making travel plans? "No, we didn't even think about that,” Church said.

For another Fort Worth traveler, who would only identify himself as "Mike,” there are no surprises at the fuel pump.

"You budget for it and away you go,” he said. "It's not like it's gone up all at once. It has been a steady climb.”

The AAA provides a Web site that can help travelers budget for their fuel costs in advance. The AAA Fuel Cost Calculator — www.fuelcostcalculator.com — figures one-way or round-trip mileage, the make and model of the vehicle and delivers a total fuel estimate.

Love's provides another way for travelers to gauge fuel prices on their routes by posting daily prices for all of its 205 stores, including 62 in Oklahoma.

Americans seem to be able to vent their anger at fuel prices and continue fueling their vehicles for the next trip, Mai said. Two years ago, a sharp rise in gas prices around Labor Day caused a lot of grousing and declarations by drivers that they had had enough.

"We did see a drop in demand, there's no doubt about it,” Mai said. "Now we have adjusted to a new sense of normalcy with gas prices,”

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