Americans take to road but cautious after gas shock

The price of gasoline, while down sharply from last year's peak, means the 74-year-old owner of a motor home may not venture as far as he has in the past.

Standing in shorts and sneakers outside his RV at a campground in Grapevine, a lakeside town near Dallas, Neal said he and his wife remained unsure where to go next. "The gas price as it is now, it's a maybe, maybe," he said.

RVs or motor homes like Neal's double as a vehicle and place to stay, complete with kitchen and bedroom. They are convenient but demand quite a bit of fuel.

The travel and auto group AAA projected last week that U.S. travel over the holiday weekend would drop 1.9 percent this year compared to 2008, a casualty of higher fuel prices and economic worries.

Approximately 37.1 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more away from home during the holiday weekend, typically the busiest time for auto travel in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer, down from 37.8 million last year.

GASOLINE PRICES FLUCTUATE

Gasoline prices are about a third lower than they were a year ago, but increases at the pump will steer Americans away from road trips, AAA said. Retail prices for regular gasoline averaged nearly $2.63 a gallon on Thursday, about 11 percent higher than they were around a month ago.

RV parks and road trips are as American as apple pie and are ingrained in a culture where the car remains king.

The country is still recovering from last summer's shock when pump prices soared past $4 a gallon, crippling the already wounded auto industry and worsening a recession which the economy has yet to escape.

With that shock came opportunities for some.

Retired New York City police officer David Linkletter bought his big RV, parked near Neal's rig, last year "brand new" from someone who hardly used it and wanted to get rid of it because he couldn't afford to drive it.

"I got this because of the economy but it was speculative. I wouldn't drive it last year. I thought we would just drive it nearby," he said as he prepared to fire up an outside gas grill to cook bacon and eggs on a hot plate for his family.

The subsequent fall in gas prices he said made a trip to Texas affordable, even though he only gets 8 miles to the gallon with his RV. During the trip from New York to north Texas he said he filled up twice each day at $120 a pop.

CAMPING CHEAPER

Fees for a campground remain much cheaper than for a motel which adds to camping's appeal when times are tough.

"At $20 a night you can't beat it," said 20-year-old student David Baker as he sat a picnic table by his tent. He had driven to north Texas from Wichita, Kansas.

In Arizona, Dan Karwoski and his partner Denise Robinson were planning to drive to Redondo Beach in southern California, to spend the holiday weekend with family.

"We probably would have made this trip anyway, but when the gas prices were elevated, we didn't drive nearly as much as we do now," said Karwoski, a senior media specialist for a Tucson software company.

Ken LaRovere, a 52-year-old sales manager for an employee benefits company from the Reno, Nevada, area was planning a trip to Donner Lake in California.