July 01--An Illinois-bound niece called from northern Indiana over the weekend, wanting to know what our gasoline prices were. I was happy to tell her we had dipped under $3 a gallon in Lake County.
"Oh, I'll fill up before I leave then," she said, as if I had told her that gas was under wartime rationing. "It's like $2.68 here."
Somewhere in Chicagoland, a gas-station owner wept quietly. But the fact is that the biggest travel weekend of the summer -- and the biggest in nearly a decade -- falls upon us at a time when Lake County gas prices are stubbornly above not only those of the Hoosier State but also the national average.
According to the AAA auto club, the U.S. average for a gallon of gas stood at $2.78 in the week before Independence Day, down a whopping 88 cents from this time a year ago. That average is arrived upon after including lows like $2.35 in central Missouri and highs like $3.57 in Los Angeles County.
In our corner of the market, you could find posted prices in the $2.91 range last Sunday, and Monday arrived with some maverick stations dipping into the $2.88 range. With Friday and/or Thursday evening ushering in the holiday-driving weekend, you just had to know a spike was coming, and it arrived on Wednesday morning with $3.09 posted from one end of the county to the other.
(A note here that I'm not including the price charged by a certain station in the shadow of Six Flags Great America -- the one that is usually about 20 cents higher than any other station in the county as it tries to nail people leaving the park. Buyer beware.)
Those of us who didn't fill up on Tuesday -- fools that we are -- might still be planning to join the estimated 41.9 million Americans who will travel over Independence Day weekend, the most since 2007, or that giddy year before the Great Recession. According to a AAA statement, "Although some consumers are using their recent savings on gas to pay down debt and save, overall, Americans are planning to travel in record numbers."
Wait, were we supposed to use our recent savings on gas to pay down debt? If so, I think I speak for all of us in saying that I hope the recent savings on gas will go on for another eight years.
Anyway, if you are planning on traveling this weekend, do so safely and sanely, and be advised that gas is going for $2.62 at DJ's Express in Michigan City, Ind.
danmoran@tribpub.com
