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Old 05-23-2008, 11:19 AM
 
Location: Maine
6,631 posts, read 13,540,190 times
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Gas is $4.08 and diesel is $5 a gallon here today. At $5 a gallon it's costing the contractors I talked with this morning $1.25 a mile.
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Old 05-23-2008, 08:09 PM
 
Location: Corinth, ME
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Maineah View Post
A large number of these are owned by retirees on fixed incomes who do not have the luxury of paying higher fuel costs. The motor parks in Florida are staying filled now as people cannot afford to drive these behemoths anywhere.
The motorhomes used to sport clever bumper stickers that read "I'm spending my kids inheritance". Now that they've spent it, they're parking the things in their kid's yards!
This rings true for us... K's folks sold their home, took the two young nieces they are raising, bought a motor home a few years back with the intention to live the RV life.

Now, they are in FL and "stuck" there as they have frittered away their funds and have basically only their retirement checks to live on.

I don't think they will be parking in our yard, when we get one though (thankfully... ) First off they would have to GET to Maine and then there is the fact that K's mom thought VA was too cold...

So I think we are off the hook... but I fear it does not bode too well for vacation industry. I have clients with tourism-related businesses and their bookings are ALL down, across the country.
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Old 05-23-2008, 08:12 PM
 
Location: Corinth, ME
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Originally Posted by forest beekeeper View Post
This morning gas was selling for $3.79/gallon in Bangor
Today (Friday, May 23) it was 3.99 at two stations in the mall area in Bangor... At Sams gas was 3.89.

BTW, we saw you in town yesterday, Forest! You were going N on Hogan; we were going south, getting ready to come home.
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Old 05-24-2008, 06:17 AM
 
Location: Southwestern Ohio
4,112 posts, read 6,519,110 times
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Originally Posted by Shuffler View Post
Tourism is a by-product of the cheap-energy era...might be time for folks to get back on their bicycles, bring back horses and buggies, and get back to meaningful activities like growing food and making useful things...

Word on the street is >$5/gal by end of summer, which is going to destroy automobile-based tourism for most everybody except the wealthy, which in turn is going to create an even larger gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots'.

Tourists could become helpless targets of homicidal unemployed sheetrockers looking for cash to get their next fix of crystal meth....
Almost sprayed the monitor with coffee (DH is a construction related field).. Gas $$ are keeping us away.
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Old 05-24-2008, 06:29 AM
 
1,594 posts, read 4,096,076 times
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Originally Posted by Maine Writer View Post
Gas is $4.08 and diesel is $5 a gallon here today. At $5 a gallon it's costing the contractors I talked with this morning $1.25 a mile.
Whatever they're driving gets just 4 miles to the gallon? Wow! I thought even eighteen-wheelers got more than that.

Concerning RVs, I too have noticed that their numbers seem to be down, although that may change this weekend. I saw a BIG one on 295 this week that was towing a six-wheeled enclosed trailer as long as the RV. Had a car inside, perhaps? I've also noticed parked RVs with plywood/chipboard skirting around the bases that had obviously been lived in all winter. (!)
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Old 05-24-2008, 07:02 AM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
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Quote:
Originally Posted by starwalker View Post
Today (Friday, May 23) it was 3.99 at two stations in the mall area in Bangor... At Sams gas was 3.89.

BTW, we saw you in town yesterday, Forest! You were going N on Hogan; we were going south, getting ready to come home.
Sorry that I missed you.
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Old 05-24-2008, 11:11 AM
 
Location: Corinth, ME
2,712 posts, read 5,653,708 times
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Originally Posted by forest beekeeper View Post
Sorry that I missed you.
We passed like ships in the afternoon... by the time K noted that it was you, it was too late to honk and wave...

Besides, we were in the black Subaru... if there were a "stealth car" in Maine, that would be it...

Now, a beat up maroon Toyota pickup with a white "eyebrow" and a tailgate full of stickers anyone would notice. I really have to revv up the cloak of invisibility when I want to hide and I am driving that!
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Old 05-24-2008, 02:13 PM
 
Location: Maine
6,631 posts, read 13,540,190 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coaster View Post
Whatever they're driving gets just 4 miles to the gallon? Wow! I thought even eighteen-wheelers got more than that.
That's all they're getting when loaded with chips, hog fuel or logs coming into the mill.

Insider info - gas will stabilize between $4.25 and $4.40 a gallon.
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Old 05-24-2008, 10:00 PM
 
Location: North Georgia
263 posts, read 797,944 times
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Well, we're still planning our trip this June! We are making it a 2 week trip with half in Maine. Since we already have everything either paid for or the $ saved up, the difference in the gas price won't be much of a big deal. Yeah, I would rather spend that money somewhere else, but I don't want to cancel my trip!
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Old 05-25-2008, 07:54 AM
 
Location: Southwestern Ohio
4,112 posts, read 6,519,110 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CalieCat View Post
Well, we're still planning our trip this June! We are making it a 2 week trip with half in Maine. Since we already have everything either paid for or the $ saved up, the difference in the gas price won't be much of a big deal. Yeah, I would rather spend that money somewhere else, but I don't want to cancel my trip!
I don't blame you. Have fun. We are probably going to do every other year in Eastport and the opposite years, tent camping a little closer to home. No matter what once the kid is out of college, it will be once a year.
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