T. J. ROYAL
While gas prices have come down from record levels since the summer of 2008, motorists say it's definitely expensive enough to alter their travel plans.
Prices around Tarboro were generally below the $2.63-per-gallon statewide average for regular unleaded gasoline reported by AAA Carolinas. The cheapest regular unleaded was at the Wilco-Hess stations on Main Street, at $2.47, with the most expensive at Parade on Western Boulevard, at $2.65.
The statewide average has jumped 23 cents in the past three weeks, after gas statewide was $2.40 on Oct. 15. But Brendan Byrnes, a AAA Carolinas spokesman, said the agency doesn't expect that trend to continue.
He said that this price increase is not due to the lack of supply and increased demand, but mostly from the investors and speculators buying up supplies because of the weakening value of the U.S. dollar in international trading.
The expectation of a colder winter in the southeast is also causing oil refineries to allow for the production of more heating oil, and is contributing to the increase in gas prices, Byrnes added.
But he also said that gas should not be expected to keep jumping to more than $3 per gallon over the holiday season, or to see many more 10-20 cent jumps in the price.
Even if it is cheaper, the price of gas is still taking an effect on travel plans of local people. As John Vines of Tarboro put $5 into his 1993 Honda Accord at Parade on Tuesday, his wife Lois said she feels gas is still "too high" overall. He said that he will still pay the extra money for Parade's gas, because he feels it's the best on his car's engine.
While the couple normally don't go too far out of town for the holidays, John said that he scrapped plans to see his brother in Greensboro over Thanksgiving because of the current price of gas. It's been a year since he's seen his brother, and he usually gets to make the trip every six months.
Jamie Bell, Golden LivingCenter's sales and marketing director, topped off her 2003 Yukon Denali with $50 at Raceway on Tuesday. With gas where it is, she said her and her husband have definitely had their traveling plans altered by the price.
"It's terrible ... I hope something gives."
The couple had planned to take travel for vacation over Christmas time, staying somewhere in the state, but that's been postponed. Going to family gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas within Edgecombe County is what they're planning to do over the holidays.
"We would love to take a trip and go somewhere. It's just not affordable right now," Bell said.
Though his traveling plans have been curbed for almost a decade, Charles Alston of Speed said the price of gas still puts a crimp on his current hobby, tending to his horses. Getting $10 gas for his '83 Chevy truck at the Wilco-Hess on North Main Street, Alston said the current price "makes it expensive" to drive his horses back and forth in the area.
But a woman also getting gas at the Wilco-Hess said that a relative's hybrid has made it possible for them to take a nice trip over Christmas.
Rosa Bryant of Parmele, heading back in her Oldsmobile van after visiting her niece in Leggett, said her son is planning to take her to Atlantic City, N.J., in December to play the games in the casinos.
The Toyota Prius that he owns, and its 50-mpg fuel mileage out on the highway, impresses Bryant: "That thing is something." And because of its efficiency, it's not a set back on their plans to make the long trip up to New Jersey.
But, she added, the price of gas would be a set back for their plans if they didn't have a hybrid car to use.
