HOULTON, Maine –With temperatures warming up, Karen Franklin of Houlton said Monday that she is already thinking of where she and her family are going to go on summer vacation.
“We always go somewhere that we can drive to,” she said Monday. “I hate flying. But we might rethink that a bit with the way that gas prices are going.”
Franklin said she was surprised to see how quickly gas prices rose in the past week.
According to AAA Northern New England, motorists are seeing prices at the pump increase by as much as 10 cents from the same time the week before. The national average was $2.88 a gallon near the end of April, representing an increase of 4 cents from the prior week. The news came one week after the U.S. State Department announced the end of waivers for countries to import oil from Iran.
According to AAA Northern New England, the national average of $2.88 a gallon is nearly 20 cents more than a month ago, and 63 cents more expensive than at the beginning of the year.
Franklin said she and her husband are “watching and waiting” to see how much the price of gasoline rises before they decide how it affects their summer plans.
“Truthfully, we were talking about driving to Florida in July to join my sister and her family on vacation,” she said. “We have been there a few times, but this would be the first time going there with my nieces and nephew, so that would be special. But it isn’t something we are going to do if gas goes to $3 a gallon. That is just way too expensive.”
Jessica Hovey of Presque Isle is also keeping an eye on gas prices. Hovey said Monday that she promised her two sons she would take them on a visit to some of the nation’s historic sites. She had intended to take them over Christmas break, but the partial government shutdown impacted that trip.
“We are definitely going, but I really didn’t think gas prices would be as high as they are,” she said. “We have had such a nice span of gas prices being low. We are definitely driving as far as Massachusetts, but the boys wanted to go as far as Pennsylvania, to see Gettysburg. So we are really going to have to wait and see what the gas prices and our finances look like.”
Jeannette Casselano, AAA spokesperson, said that 17 states are within a dime of or are already at $3 a gallon or more.
She said that Americans can expect the national average to likely surpass 2018’s high of $2.97 a gallon, which was set during the Memorial Day weekend.
Hovey said her husband has suggested taking alternative transportation to their vacation spot.
“That may end up being what we do,” she said Monday. “We might drive to Boston and take the train to Pennsylvania, which will cut down on the cost of the trip,” she said. “I think that many people are going to have to find creative ways to fund transportation if gas prices keep increasing.”
