Holiday travel, gas prices are up, up, away

06:35 PM CDT on Friday, July 1, 2005

By Dan Lauck / 11 News

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Pack your patience if you're hitting the highway this holiday weekend because eight out of every 10 travelers will drive.

Expect a record number of fellow travelers as well as higher prices for gasoline compared to a year ago.

Filling up in Houston will cost on average $2.11 a gallon for regular unleaded.

San Antonio is a popular vacation destination. Gas there goes for $2.09 a gallon. And in Dallas you can expect to pay $2.15 according to AAA.

It was just what you'd expect on the Friday before the 4th of July weekend.

It's busy and the price of gas is still painful, especially for those driving the gas hogs, who can only stand by while the numbers flicker toward the $80 fillup.

"You'll never get used to it. You just have to live with it," says one driver.

"We were watching a movie the other night and I saw it was a $1.79 on the gas marquee," says one woman. "And I told my husband, 'Remember when we thought that was high.' "

Something cataclysmic was supposed to happen when gasoline hit $2 a gallon or oil topped $40 a barrel.

But little changed. People just kept filling up.

Now that gasoline has hit $2.30 and oil $60 a barrel, could $3 gas be far behind?

There is nothing that can make $2-a-gallon gasoline look better than the prospect of $3-a-gallon gasoline.

And so Friday, they filled up, most of them thinking little about the price, except one elderly woman who recalled the golden age of gas prices, stating, "I remember when it was 25 cents a gallon."