Fuel prices keep many close to home

Independence? Not so much. People are skipping visits to beach and family

Four-dollar gas is making Phillip Foster homesick for the holiday.

Two dozen relatives will flock to his grandma's house in Wilson on Friday for a weekend of love and affection, basketball and barbecue. The family gets together each year for a two-day cookout to mark Independence Day and Foster's birthday -- he'll turn 24 on Saturday.

This year they'll celebrate without him.

Foster cannot afford gas for the drive to Wilson, just 65 miles east of Durham, where he works as a store clerk and substitute schoolteacher. For the first time since he left home for college, he'll spend the Fourth away from his parents, his siblings and his cousins.

"You try to make sure you come home for special occasions," Foster said, shaking his head. "So you can get to know your little cousins."

Record-high gas prices have soured holiday travel plans for thousands of people across the state.

While the state population grew about 2 percent in the past year, AAA predicts that the number of North Carolinians traveling by car and by air for the July 4th weekend will drop by more than 1 percent.

Many North Carolinians still plan holiday trips but will stay closer to home this year.

"I've noticed local people from our own area camping here," said Robin Kalish, a ranger at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area. "People from Pittsboro and Apex, and today there's someone camping from 5 miles away."

State parks saw a surge in campers, boaters and other visitors after gas prices rose sharply in late 2005 and 2006. With prices up more than $1 since January, it's happening again this summer.

"Instead of driving all the way to the beach from the Triangle or the Triad, there's more opportunity for folks to go to Hanging Rock or Falls Lake or Jordan Lake," said Lewis Ledford, the state parks director.

Camping, boating closer

At Jordan Lake's Poplar Point, campers pay $20 a night for a site with an electrical hookup, or $15 without electricity. As of Wednesday, 120 of the 579 campsites were booked for the weekend.

"That's more reservations than we've ever had, and I've been here 10 years," Kalish said.

Ed Johnson of Apex, 61, pulled his boat out of Jordan Lake on Wednesday and wished he could afford a July 4th beach trip.

"I'd love to go down to the coast and do some king fishing off the pier," said Johnson, a retired manufacturing worker. "But the price of gas costs me $80 to run to Carolina Beach and back. Plus a place to stay. Plus eating. If the gas was down two bucks a gallon, I'd run down there and fish a couple of days and come on back."

At the Sheraton Atlantic Beach hotel, general manager Tim Peters offers $50 gas cards to guests who stay five days, and $100 cards for those who stay a week. Like many competitors, Peters also has cut room rates to keep visitors coming.

"We used to have many more people coming from as far away as Ohio and Kentucky than we do this year," Peters said. "We're seeing more from the Triad and the Triangle, Richmond and Norfolk."

Peters still has rooms available for the holiday weekend, but hotels are more crowded at Cherokee in the Western North Carolina mountains. Only two of the town's 45 hotels had vacancies as of Wednesday, said George Lambert, Cherokee tribal tourism manager.

At Raccoon Holler Campground in Glendale Springs, all 250 campsites are booked for the weekend.

"We're getting a lot of campers out of the Boone area," just 30 miles away," said Helen Stinson, Raccoon Holler office manager.

Some campers have booked longer stays than in the past, Stinson said. Rather than drive from one campground to another, they're staying in one spot to save gas.

Making some money

Fawn Spagnola of Cary can't afford to travel for the Fourth, so she'll work for holiday bonus pay in her job as a hospital surgical technician. "I usually go home to New York," said Spagnola, 36. "But there's no reasonable air fare or gas prices."

She'll get off work in time to catch the Friday night fireworks with a friend.

So will Foster. After he works a shift Friday at Linens and Things, he'll get together with Durham friends to check out the Festival for the Eno.

"It's kind of disappointing, because you'd like to spend the time with your family," Foster said. "But I've got good friends."