Have Gas, Will Travel

Richard Webb knows better than most about the alarming state of gasoline prices, and not just because it cost more than $300 to fill his RV’s 100-gallon gas tank.

The Santa Clarita resident owns two gas stations in Bell Gardens and last week was forced to increase prices by 40 cents a gallon in response to rising wholesale costs.

But even then, he said the escalating costs don’t appear to be making much difference in driving habits this holiday weekend, as evidenced by the customary Labor Day line of campers at Rincon Beach, between Ventura and Santa Barbara.

“People are coming; it gets them out of the heat,” said Webb, 49, a third-generation gas station owner who wedged his 35-foot motor home into an ocean-front parking space late Thursday. “We’ll see what happens [to driving habits] if the price goes any higher.”

Despite skyrocketing gas prices, a record number of Southern Californians are projected to get away this holiday weekend, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

An estimated 2.4 million Southland residents are expected to hit the road, while another half a million people were slated to fly to holiday destinations, according to the automobile club. Statewide, nearly 5 million residents had made plans to travel over the extended weekend, a 1.8% increase over last Labor Day.

Automobile club spokeswoman Carol Thorp cautioned that the forecast could miss the mark this year, because travelers were surveyed more than a week ago, before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and gasoline prices rose to an average of nearly $3 a gallon.

But Thorp said that if past experience holds, the roads could be busy over the three days.

“In times past, people have gone no matter what,” Thorp said. “It may be for some that there’s a psychological component that keeps them from traveling. We won’t be sure of that until we see what the CHP sees on the highway.”

La Verne resident Mike DePape is among the thousands who headed to the Colorado River for a weekend of boating and socializing.

DePape, 53, said that by late Friday morning he and his boat-owning buddies had paid more than $620 to gas up two boats and a personal watercraft. The going rate for a gallon of gas near the river was $3.07.

As DePape bemoaned the expense, he drove by an Arco station in Bullhead City, Ariz., where a gallon was $2.73.

“The entire lot’s full, and cars are lined up out into the street, with about 20 pumps going,” DePape said. “It’s like the gas rationing days.”

On the infield of the California Speedway in Fontana, site of this weekend’s Nextel Cup Sony HD 500 race, Ronnie Cronn of Arizona flicked a beer can into the trash and laughed heartily when asked about the cost of filling up his RV.

“Three hundred bucks,” Cronn said. “I may be a moron, but I’ve been coming to this race since it started. My friends and the skimpy-top girls are worth it.”

Not everyone was willing to pay such a steep price.

Ilona Percel of Ventura plans to stay close to home this weekend and may even turn down a friend’s invitation to visit Mammoth next week. She uses premium grade in her 1990 Mercedes sedan and recalled the unhappy experience of watching her tank fill with gas Thursday.

“It cost me $60 for the first time ever,” she said. “Incredible, isn’t it?”

But steep gas prices didn’t stop more than 100 motorists from lining up their RVs and travel trailers along the Rincon Parkway, some arriving as early as Tuesday to secure primo spots near the crashing surf.

San Fernando Valley residents Mike and Katie Stevenson were lucky. They arrived early Friday to find all of the best spaces filled. Resigned to staying only for the day, they were starting out on a bike ride when a beachside position opened up.

On the way to the beach, Mike Stevenson said, he stopped at a gas station to put $40 worth of gas in his 30-foot RV, enough for a quarter of a tank.

“When you contrast it with $200 a night to stay in a hotel, this is cheap,” Stevenson said. “The trick is to use just enough to get here and get home.”

Quartz Hill resident Mike Hidalgo, 67, used a trick of his own for easing the high price of holiday travel. The retired Department of Water and Power employee last filled the 75-gallon tank on his RV in May, when prices were closer to $2 a gallon. And since it’s only about 220 miles round trip from the Antelope Valley, he figured he could make it back home then wait for prices to go down.

“It puts a crimp on everybody,” he said. “But there’s not much we can do about it, except drive a little less and make your errands count.”

Times staff writer Catherine Saillant contributed to this report.