Robert Neal will take to the road this Independence Day holiday the same as millions of other Americans. But there's a difference in their U.S. road-trip ritual this Fourth of July, according to Reuters. The price of gasoline, while down sharply from last year's peak, means the 74-year-old owner of a motor home may not venture as far as he has in the past. Standing in shorts and sneakers outside his RV at a campground in Grapevine, a lakeside town near Dallas, Neal said he and his wife remained unsure where to go next. "The gas price as it is now, it's a maybe, maybe," he said. RVs or motor homes like Neal's double as a vehicle and place to stay, complete with kitchen and bedroom. They are convenient but demand quite a bit of fuel. The travel and auto group AAA projected last week that U.S. travel over the holiday weekend would drop 1.9 percent this year compared to 2008, a casualty of higher fuel prices and economic worries. Approximately 37.1 million Americans will travel 50 miles (80 km) or more away from home during the holiday weekend, typically the busiest time for auto travel in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer, down from 37.8 million last year. Gasoline prices are about a third lower than they were a year ago, but increases at the pump will steer Americans away from road trips, AAA said. Retail prices for regular gasoline averaged nearly $2.63 a gallon on Thursday, about 11 percent higher than they were around a month ago. RV parks and road trips are as American as apple pie and are ingrained in a culture where the car remains king. The country is still recovering from last summer's shock when pump prices soared past $4 a gallon, crippling the already wounded auto industry and worsening a recession which the economy has yet to escape. With that shock came opportunities for some. There are other signs of Americans sticking close to home.
