High Gas Prices Aren’t Stopping Iowans From Their Summer Fun
We've heard endless stories about gas prices in America as we hit the middle of June. When will they go down? Sadly, there doesn't appear to be an end in sight anytime soon. The national average for a gallon of gas is $5.01 according to GasPrices AAA. Thankfully Iowa's gas prices are lower than the national average and as of today, Iowans can expect to pay close to $4.73
Have the high gas prices changed anything about the way you commute or spend your money? I surely have tried to cut back on driving as much as possible. This weekend I have friends coming to visit from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I had discussions with them about possibly canceling the visit.
I didn't want them to feel like they needed to spend that much on gas, just to visit me at my new house. They weren't bothered by the cost and told me they were all still coming to visit. It turns out gas prices haven't bothered Iowans much when it comes to enjoying summer fun either.
Despite gas being at an all-time high, you can still expect to see plenty of boats on the water in Iowa. KCRG recently talked to people out boating on the Coralville lake and how these prices have affected their summer fun.
Aaron Hopp told KCRG he doesn't watch the price while he's filling up.
the best thing is to just not look, honestly.
Shannon Vanrees also talked to KCRG and he said it cost about $100 to fill up his jet skis and that last year it was about half of that. He also believes gas won't ever be too expensive to go boating.
I don’t think it ever will. Because you can regulate how much gas you use on the lake by how far you go and how fast you do it.
I would be willing to guess a lot of this has to do with living in the midwest. We really don't have the luxury of being at a beach or using our boats/jetskis all year around. Realistically we have about 4 or 5 months to get out on the water and soak up the sun unless you plan on fishing in colder temperatures.
In states where the weather is warm year-round, you may see people cutting back a little bit on boating, just because they can go out all year. They have the opportunity to go out any month of the year and may try to wait for the prices to go down. We don't exactly have much time here in Iowa. We want to use our water toys as much as possible in the limited time we have to use them before storing them away for the winter.
When I was younger I would always joke to my parents I didn't need to be rich, I just wanted to have enough money so that when I fill up with gas I can stare off into the distance, and not pay attention to how much it cost. Right now...you can bet that there aren't many people who don't stare at the price and utter a few swear words under their breath as they're filling up.