Summer vacation not an option for some

By Deborah Goodwin

The Selma Times-Journal

Bobby Simmons won&8217;t be driving to Florida this year. Gas is too high.

It takes about $50 to fill his 1995 Ford Ranger.

A local general contractor, Simmons has raised the price of his services by about 15 percent due to rising gas prices.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gas hit $4.005 Sunday, according to AAA, and the price is expected to keep climbing.

Oil Price Information Service reported light, sweet crude shot up nearly $11 a barrel Friday and approached $140 for the first time. Sweet crude oil is the most sought after by refiners because of its low sulfur content and relatively high yields of high-value products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil and jet fuel.

Larry and Judith Ford paid $4.259 per gallon for premium gasoline at Junction Amoco BP on Highway 14 to fill up their Harley-Davidson on Sunday.

The two aren&8217;t happy about paying more for gas, but it hasn&8217;t stopped them for traveling.

The Fords said they haven&8217;t seen a decrease in the number of travelers on the highway.

Michael &8220;Gone&8221; Cook and his wife, Ramona &8220;Princess&8221; Cook, drove their Chevy TrailBlazer to Selma from Baltimore on a whim. After recently attending the funeral of a member of Michael&8217;s motorcycle club, the Cycle Lords, the Cooks said they heard their friends talk about all the things that they wish they could have said or done, so they decided to &8220;go for a ride.&8221;

After leaving Annapolis, Md., the couple stopped at Stone Mountain, Ga., spent the night in Montgomery and them came to Selma to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Although the Cooks spent more than $400 in gas one way, they said they are not going to sit at home and wait for the price of gas to go down.

Mildred and Juan Melton had planned to go to Tennessee this year, but they&8217;re not.

Mildred spends more than $100 per week traveling to work in her 2005 Nissan Maxima.

High gas costs, the rising cost of utilities, groceries and day-to-day necessities are putting a strain on the Meltons&8217; household. Juan Melton said everything was going up except his income.