by Curtis Carper

Created on: May 23, 2008   Last Updated: May 28, 2008

Rising gas prices has the whole economy in turmoil. The trickle down effect has disrupted almost every part of life as we know it. The ever escalating price of transportation creates hardships from many different angles. The least of which is the financial hardship on people who rely on their own car to get to and from work.

Over the past 50 years the population of the county has spread out over the countryside. While the majority of employment opportunities still remain in urban areas, forcing lengthy commutes for many rural residents.

Now they're trapped, their lives are invested in their country homes. With no alternative for the commute to work, their income is greatly diminished by the cost of transportation. Rapidly they are working only to support the trip to work.

My wife and I are among the fortunate few who made some very sensible decisions a few years back. Moving from Texas to our hometown of Duluth, Minnesota back in 2003. When we arrived home we chose to buy a new mobile home rather then the much larger investment of a house. A house would have much higher payments, and be more expensive to operate and maintain. Today's mobile homes (at least in Minnesota) are built to very high standards with 2x6 walls, double pane windows, and energy efficient appliances. Utilities are a fraction of what an older home would be.

The community we chose is located on the fringe of the city, providing us with a suburban, almost rural setting. It's also on the city bus line. My wife prefers to ride the bus over driving, a monthly bus pass for $35 was a no brainer for her.

My job is driving a handi-capped bus. A split shift with morning and late afternoon routes. The bus is parked in front of my house when not in use, requiring me to commute about 25'. The length of my sidewalk and I'm on the payroll.

We have two vehicles, a newer GMC flex fuel pickup with which I only use E-85 ethanol based fuel. Our other car is a Geo Tracker that gets +30 mpg. As we don't use either for daily work transportation they spend the majority of their time sitting in the driveway. With our minimal use of our vehicles we spend $100 a month or less of fuel.

Our one leisure activity is camping with our 24' travel trailer. We usually go to a campground that is only 25 miles away. This year we may limit our outings to the three major weekends, Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and Labor Day. If we found a close by resort that we could park our travel trailer at, we could eliminate some of the fuel expense

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