Thomas Richardson is on vacation this week. Carol Greer, Hallsville Independent School District public relations officer, is filling in for him.

At what gas price would you switch over to another means of travel or stay at home? Well, the money did not stop Thomas Richardson from rambling all over the state of Florida. He toured Saint Augustine, Daytona and Orlando. I'm sure you will hear more about this next week.

In answer to the question, I heard most say $3. Thinking of that price reminds me of the "good ol' days" when, as a young driver, I paid 25 cents for a gallon of gas, and often only put in $1 to drive over "thrill hill" several times. I paid 21 or 22 cents when there was a gas war.

Most of those I have talked with said they did not want a Smart fortwo, electric or hybrid car. Two friends of mine, however, are on the list to get one, anxiously waiting to travel 40 miles per gallon. No one indicated they would stay home.

Does the average person want to know why gas prices are so high?

I researched the question. The most common answer I found was a combination of rising crude oil prices and rising demand; demand makes sense. We could find many things to get upset with ourselves here. A recent study from the University of Illinois says our citizens' weight gain is in part to blame.

Americans are now pumping 938 million gallons more fuel annually than we were in 1960, partially because of the extra weight carried in our vehicles. At $3 a gallon, we pay an extra $7.7 million a day, or $2.8 billion a year, just to carry around more or larger people.

It would be comforting to blame India and China for increases in demand. They're guzzling gas at rates that daily come closer to ours. However, they're gulping down all the refined energy in order to provide cheap items we depend on to keep our household budgets in the black.

Our fuel efficiency has in fact increased over the years. Most of today's SUVs get better gas mileage than smaller cars did during the last major gas crisis.

Why are crude oil prices rising? Could it be the wealthy lifestyles in Saudi Arabia and the huge profits of oil companies? OPEC reduced production last month due to a drop in Nigeria's production, which is in part due to the unrest in the Niger River delta where many get crude out of wells. The value of the dollar began to drop because of slow U.S. economic growth, subprime mortgage problems, decreasing federal funds rates hurting investments in the U.S. and U.S. trade deficit.

Is it a circle: High oil prices fuel inflation, which rises gas prices? Translated, this means that high gas prices are due in part to high oil prices, which are due in part to a weak dollar, which is due in part to high oil prices, which lead to high gas prices.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. In 2002-2003, I remember the president's environmental program for drilling oil at nuclear power plants was voted down. I'm left wondering if we could be getting the oil we need today if it had been approved. I'll think about this as I run the roads locally and travel — very little — this summer.