My husband took a roundtrip from here to NE KS this week to help his daughter add some curb appeal to her house... gas cost him over $350.!!! How in the heck are we gonna take any riding vacations further than Mark Twain forest around the corner? What are the rest of you doing? and... don't these beautiful LQ trailers look great parked out by the horsebarn with the awning out and the grill lit, pretending we are at Eastfork in TN or the Colorado Rockies?? I think we'll be using our horses for transportation instead of recreation very soon.

I feel your pain!!!!!  I went to OKC last week to pick up my new 4H run around trailer and had a whopping $600 fuel bill!

We did the math and it equaled to about 4.8 mpg. with an empty non LQ aluminum trailer. It spent 2 days in the shop this week.....again.

So, I guess the bigger M2 is going to become the frequent flyer if hubby makes me sell the 2002 GMC dually that gets 3 times what the Ford get with the same trailer. I'm thinking it will be cheaper to keep her until the Ford is fixed properly.

These prices are awful, but I've just cut back on things like eating out and clothes and tack buying.  My trail rides are my favorite thing to do, and I intend to go.  I've been working double shifts and picking up extra hours at work, even some doubletime when I can.  I figure that since the midwest weather sucks 99.999 percent of the time this spring, I can work my butt off for 1 weekend of fun. This holiday weekend has such a strong chance for storms that I'm not sure if I want to risk going....not to mention that many places close the trails if it rains.

  I tell you what....I enjoy the rare precious time I get to spend on the trail even more than I used to.  

Amanda

I canceled our Big Creek trip due to the high diesel and crummy rains that won't quit. Couldn't justify spending $400 in fuel to watch it rain. And because of all this torrential rain, the window well couldn't drain fast  enough so I have wet carpet downstairs (yes, it has a cover over it) to take care of. Grrrrr. Hope we have it fixed now. More storms with heavy rain are forcasted for the next two days. Glad we stayed home to monitor the basement.

We are trying go to visit Kansas State Parks. We love riding in the East, but gonna check out closer parks like Eisenhower and Kanopolis. Eagle Ranch has been getting a lot of our business too. Too bad it cost so much for a relaxing weekend trip. Kinda takes the fun out of even having horses. Only doing a handful of shows this year too. I too miss visiting with other horse people.

They may have the reserves on the North Slope, But I doubt that we will ever see $1.50 a gallon gasoline again. And I don't believe that it's our governments fault. 

There is a world price for oil. So even if comes out of the North Slope reserves, It will be sold at world market prices.  Add to that the cost of transportation, refining, distribution. It will never be that cheap again. Why do we expect to pay less for a gallon of gasoline than we pay for a gallon of milk or bottled water?

The good thing to know is that there are enough reserves to supply energy for me, my kids and grandkids into the forseeable future. What did he say, enough reserves on the north slope to fuel the United States for 200 years.  Combine that with the oil trapped in the Oil Shale of Utah and Colorado, ( which they estimate will power the US for 400 years)  That should be long enough for mankind to develope some alternative fuels. The higher cost of crude oil will stimulate the development of these other alternatives.  Maybe Bio-diesel from corn or Ethonal from Switch Grass are not the answers. But with crude being over $100 a barrel there will be incentives to go after the alternatives.