RALEIGH - The bargain hunters were stacked up Monday at some of the cheapest stations in town -- waiting for the chance to spend a little more than $3 for a gallon of regular.

"People are pouring in like they found gold here," said Ed Stephenson, 62, of southern Wake County, shaking his head. He was filling his Acura for $3.029 a gallon at a Wilco Hess station on South Saunders Street.

"Two or three weeks ago it was two-eighty-something down the street -- and people were going crazy for that," Stephenson said.

But that was then. Triangle gas prices climbed nearly 17 cents in just the past week to reach an average $3.128 per gallon for regular Monday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

That brought the Triangle within pennies of the local record, $3.184, set during Labor Day week in 2005 in a price spike inspired by Hurricane Katrina's assault on Gulf Coast refineries.

Christine Marlowe, 42, of Clayton said she can afford only half a tank at a time in her Ford Explorer. Recently widowed, she's afraid of getting stranded somewhere without gas money.

"I don't like this, especially when the gas companies are making a profit," Marlowe said. "Seems like they always find something to have an excuse to go up on the gas prices."

Analysts told the Associated Press on Monday that it wouldn't take much to push prices still higher -- such as the prospect of unrest surrounding the coming presidential inauguration in Nigeria, or bad news in the government's next hurricane outlook.

Across the nation, the average price for regular hit a record $3.196 Monday, and crude oil futures reached above $66 per barrel. National gas inventories were reported below average as the busy summer driving season approached -- starting this weekend with the Memorial Day holiday.

Many Raleigh stations were selling regular Monday for $3.179 -- and they had takers.

"I'm almost completely out, so I'm stopping here to get just enough to get me home," said Kara Richards, 38, of Hillsborough, pumping a few gallons into her Honda Accord at an Exxon on Creedmoor Road in North Raleigh. "I live near a truck stop where they have it maybe a dime cheaper, and I'll go fill up there."

Meanwhile, she said, her family does what it can to trim the fuel bill. "We're trying to cut down on driving, to go as many places as possible when we get out on a trip," Richards said. "And I think we're also considering buying a hybrid car."

Trudy Gerhart, 85, was buying gas for the first time in a month. She had returned to her Macy's job Monday after being out sick for a few weeks, and the $3.179 price had her rattled.

"I have to drive 20 minutes every day to work," Gerhart said as she filled her Buick Skylark. "Now I've got to pick up medicine and go to the store yet, before I get home. It just about kills me."