edward snowden came forward last year. the senate is working on its own reform bill. well, looking at the calendar memorial day weekend is upon us. 36 million americans will be traveling for the unofficial start of summer. many certainly are keeping a wary eye on the prices at the pu pump. miguel marquez is breaking it all down for us, taking a little road trip. he s singing the blues. 36.1 million people will be on the roads and about a third of them are right in front of me. that s a little bit above where it was last year at 35.5 million but way below where it was before the recession, about 44 million travelers at its lowest point in 09. gas prices just a hair above where they were last year about $3.65 a gallon but they were at $2.42. when times are tough, gas is cheap. aaa saying 88% of travelers will
habits and i did it too. it is a lot you think about going to the gas pumps. i m concerned about the weather. you look at the tornado activity, we know hurricane season is upon us. if it is a bad one, can that cause prices to rise? that is certainly the wild card. if we get a major hurricane hitting the refineries along the gulf coast, that is going to definitely impact what we pay at the pump. okay. with regard to this year versus last year, and the overall impact of what we paid at the pu pump, can you put that in some sort of quantitative measure there as to are we feeling the difference? we re definitely feeling the difference, not only because gas prices are rising, but as gas prizes rise, oil prices rise, other commodities rise, food prices rise, we re seeing higher prices for everything we re paying for. you re seeing starbucks raising their prices, hershey s raising their prices, mcdonald s raising their prices. people are starting to feel this. it is definitely having