CORRECTION

A front-page story Saturday on rising gas prices gave an incorrect last name in the second reference to an Apex-area mother with six children who play soccer. The woman's name is Rene Madrid. The story also incorrectly listed the age of one of her children. Nicholas Madrid is 10.

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Eric Goodson cradled a small, brown notepad in his right palm as he pulled onto Durham's South Miami Boulevard, planning a slight detour before driving home Friday afternoon.

Triangle gas prices reached new highs all week -- regular unleaded Friday hit an unprecedented $3.569 a gallon, said AAA Carolinas -- and volunteer GasBuddy.com scouts such as Goodson cruise service stations daily, if not more frequently.

Within 45 minutes, the software engineer maneuvered his Saturn minivan through five stations, jotting down prices in and around Research Triangle Park. In his wallet, Goodson kept a faded receipt from 1986 that proved he once paid 59.9 cents a gallon to fill up his old Mazda hatchback.

Forget 59.9 cents: The recent spikes have motorists nostalgic for the days of $2 a gallon. No such luck Friday, and by 4 p.m. Goodson was home in North Raleigh to upload his bad news to RaleighGasPrices.com and DurhamGasPrices.com.

"I do it to give back to the other people who do the same for me," said Goodson, 43. "Obviously, one person can't do it all."

Not every Triangle motorist spent the week tracking prices penny by penny, but many acknowledged feeling the pinch and thinking about how cut back on driving.

After the dollar dipped to a new low against the euro, oil prices soared to a record $119.90 a barrel earlier this week. Crude oil prices jumped again after BP announced plans to shut down a North Sea pipeline and after reports of a U.S.-contracted cargo ship firing at Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf.

Rene Madrid did not need to hear any of that to decide it was time to drive less. Rene and her husband, Richard, live just outside Apex and have six children, all of whom play soccer. Factor in the travel teams' 17 practices a week, nine to 11 games a weekend, and the Madrids have gone from spending $100 a month to fuel their minivan and Toyota Corolla two years ago to about $450 a month.

"This is the first year I've ever carpooled," said Rene Richard, who was traveling with her 9-year-old son, Nicholas, and two other mothers and their sons for a tournament this weekend in Asheville. "We just can't do it, can't afford it. ... Every day's a new high, and I'm really at a loss as to what can I do about it."

In Wake Forest on Thursday, Joseph Northcut barely looked at the numbers spun upward at the Kangaroo station pump. At $3.56 a gallon, it cost the nonprofit consultant $40.04 to fill up his GMC Yukon, which was about half full when he started.

"I calculate now how we do our weekend trips," said Northcut, 54. "I really evaluate now if it's important to go down Capital Boulevard a couple times a week to run errands, or should we wait until the weekend and make one trip."

Although some analysts said $4 a gallon is just around the corner, the Oil Price Information Service's Tom Kloza said we could get away with gas prices peaking at $3.75.

When Woodrow Milton Wheeler set the regular unleaded price for his three pumps at $3.69 a gallon Thursday, his Triangle gas station and convenience store earned the nod on RaleighGasPrices.com as the highest rate in Wake County.

On Creedmoor Road near one of Falls Lake's recreation areas, the pumps still drew a slow but steady trickle of drivers.

A few paid with a fistful of crinkled bills and coins that clattered across the counter as they figured out how many gallons they could afford. No one paused to pick up a fishing rod, inflatable raft, beef jerky or some other snack inside the family-owned convenience store.

Wheeler and his family have been running the store for 25 years, he said, but they don't own the three old gas pumps that don't accept credit cards. Wheeler, 63, pulled out a fax from Cary Oil, which owns the pumps and supplies the fuel. The fax suggested a range of prices for the Wheelers to charge.

At $3.69 a gallon, Wheeler noted, he is splitting four cents for every gallon sold with Cary Oil. Hardly enough for him to get as rich as his friends have suggested, Wheeler said.

"People think we're ripping them off. I wish people would get the real perspective," Wheeler said. "How in the world can anyone stay in business with a 1 percent profit margin?"