May 13, 2008

‘Back in my day’ it cost $1,800 to drive to Alaska and back

I’ve told myself, many times, that I would never do it, never say the words young people so often hear from those who are a little older.

Nope, not me, I would never say that phrase because I never liked to hear it too much. Well, it came out last week not once but twice in two different conversations, sort of.

We’ve all heard it before, “Well, back in my day, ...”

In 40 years, when I reach my golden years, I’ll never start a sentence off in such a way, I’ve thought many times as I’ve heard those words said to me.

I didn’t use that exact phrase last week, but the gist of what I said was, “Well, back in my day...”

The topic: gasoline prices.

The topic came up last week as I chatted with a few students in-between classes on the day gasoline topped $3.70 a gallon. Just 11 years ago, I explained, when I got my driver’s license, I filled my car up with the super premium gas for a little over $1.20 a gallon. As soon as I said it, I knew I had committed the “Well, back in my day” sin.

Strike one.

Two days later, it happened again when gas climbed a little higher.

Strike two, I thought. One more, and I’m out.

Those words have come out easier than I thought this week, but it’s hard not to talk about the soaring prices we are seeing — and feeling — each time we fill up.

From newspaper accounts to TV reports to politicians talking about a gas-tax holiday or taxing oil profits, the price of gasoline is on all of our minds this summer. I just wonder how many weeks it will be until we hit $4 a gallon?

The increasing prices have left me thinking a lot about a trip I made to Alaska in 2004. I left Bluffton July 29, 2004, after filling up my gas-guzzling Jeep Grand Cherokee at the Pak-a-Sak station for about $1.70 per gallon.

I drove to Arizona to pick up some friends and we spent the next two months driving through the western United States, throughout western Canada and eventually reaching Alaska. We spent about three weeks all throughout Alaska and then headed back toward the United States. We drove down the idyllic Pacific Coast, back to Arizona and I eventually returned to Indiana.

Gas was about $1.80 a gallon that summer, except in Canada, where it was about 80 cents higher per gallon (most of the world is used to the higher prices). The highest we paid in the United States was $2.35 a gallon in one small town in Alaska — a figure that just blew our minds at the time.

After 16,000 miles and two months on the road, we spent about $1,800 on gas. It’s hard to believe that, four years later, that same trip would cost nearly double, or more than $3,000.

So what’s the solution to our gas woes? I wish we had one to offer today, but we do agree with Sen. Barack Obama and his argument that a gas-tax holiday is not the solution and doesn’t make much sense. At the same time, his call for a long-term investment in alternative energy is a commendable idea to set our country on a path toward oil independence, which is the only true solution.

The short-term solution, perhaps, is to follow in the footsteps of a friend who decided this week to begin riding his bike to work and back. He calculated a savings of $11 in just one week by not driving to and from work. He earns this writer’s praise for the week.

In the meantime, we’re thankful of having had the chance to visit such beautiful places while gas was still affordable. It’s still hard to believe that we complained so much about having to pay $2.35 per gallon in that small Alaska town as I look out the window tonight and see $3.84 per gallon.

Just four years ago, who would have ever imagined we would be here today? And who ever would have thought that I, at the age of 27, would be able to make such an alarming comparison that would warrant something along the lines of, “Well, back in my day...”

Email Justin Peeper

Talk about this story in our forums!