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The small spike in gas prices we have seen in the past two weeks will not deter Thanksgiving holiday travelers this year according to AAA. The American Automobile Association says that 38 million people will be on the roads for the Thanksgiving holiday, up from last years numbers. Air travel numbers are up as well. In the past two weeks gasoline prices have risen a few cents, but not enough to take the holiday spirit out of travelers.
Thanksgiving is one of the biggest travel days of the year, and the cost of gas won't ruin anyone's annual ritual of joining with friends and loved ones to share this year's turkey dinner.
Since the cost of gas stopped a lot of people from traveling in the warmer months they want to be able to make this holiday into a mini vacation. The actual holiday travel weekend begins on Wednesday. With hotel bookings up we can see many travelers are staying at their destination until the weekend.
The national cost of a gallon of gas is at 2.24, up from two weeks ago when it was at 2.18. Still it is a far cry from August and the 3.00 mark. Last year at this time the average cost of a gallon of regular gas was not much lower than it is right now. Whenever we have peak travel times there is a rise in cost of fuel that is normal and since there is no short supply of fuel right now we can attribute the small increase in gas on that.
Even with OPEC discussing more cuts in production in December our supply is in good shape.If they do cut the production it will not affect our gas prices right away since we do have an ample supply on hand, but in the early months of 2007 we could feel it with prices rising again.
With the price of a barrel of crude oil at just over 58.00, the winter season, so far, having been mild, and our gas supply high are some reasons we don't have to be worried right now about prices of gas changing too much. We may see it go a few cents up or down, but we are not likely to see the jumps we saw earlier this year.
There doesn't seem to be any belief that the gas prices will change much for the rest of this year, so we can relax for the holidays ahead, and spend our money on gifts and entertaining.
It will be nice to talk turkey rather than gas prices for awhile, so enjoy it while you can. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and if you are going out on the road, drive carefully.