It’s true. I am the butt of many jokes. Born and raised in Hawaii… now living in Wisconsin… I’m sure you can imagine the jabs made at me at parties. But, truthfully, I don’t mind. I’ve got the smile-nod-thing down to a science and frankly there are many positive attributes to living on the “mainland.” One of which is being able to jump in my vehicle and drive, drive, drive. It is not a luxury we have in Hawaii where there are natural limits (the ocean, for example) as to how far you can get by car. But, living in the continental United States offers one the ability to wake up in Chicago and be in Nashville by dusk. I love the ability to explore America by car and I take advantage of any opportunity I can to pack up the family and travel to kid-friendly destinations.
Sounds great, but I have a confession. Lately, the price of gas has put the brakes on many of our travel plans. I have had to seriously re-think visiting some of the attractions I wanted to take my daughter to, based solely on the fact that the amount of money it would take getting there would pay for an entire week’s worth of groceries. I am flexible with my travel plans, but I have a friend who MUST travel long distances to help care for her elderly mother. She is the one who introduced me to the “Fuel Price Finder.”
The “Fuel Price Finder” is an Internet tool you can access by visiting, www.aaa.com. It is a multi-faceted program designed to help you get the most for your gasoline dollar. Just log onto to American Automobile Association’s (AAA) website, click on “Autos” then “Fuel Price Finder,” and you can find out the latest prices being charged at service stations anywhere in the United States. The “Fuel Price Finder” uses a computer network to monitor (on a daily basis) the pump prices at more than 85,000 service stations nationwide giving you the ability to locate the lowest gas prices locally and across the country. I have used it and it really is very easy; just enter the name of any U.S. city and state into the computer program and you will see a display of the prices being charged by all network stations within 10 miles. It’s a quick way to find the cheapest gas in any geographic area in the country. It is invaluable if you are driving to a location you are unfamiliar with and allows you to better keep the cap on your gas budget.