Fight the gas price blues with fun close to home

What's worse than spending 12 hours stuck in a car on the way to a vacation in Florida?

Not going on a vacation.

It seems to be the choice people have to make this summer.

You don't have to stay home, but if you do, there's plenty going on in your backyard. As gas prices get higher, maybe the distance of your trip should just get shorter. Nestled somewhere in the back of this magazine each week, you'll find a page filled with suggestions of things to do within a few hours drive.

Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park has a projected open date of June 26 for swimming, hiking, etc. Van Buren, Mo., has camping and floating on the Current River, and the Missouri State Parks are always offering new programs — bird watching hikes, medicinal plant hikes. Its Web site (www.mostateparks.com) lists activities and where to do them within the state.

Being in Southeast Missouri, we have access to five states within a few hours drive. Oh, but we're still driving. Grab that handy-dandy Macbook and use the Internet to help.

Up until Tuesday, I didn't know what my gas mileage was (Hey, don't judge me. No, it's not written in my user manual, and I'm too forgetful to reset the little odometer every time I fill up. Safe to say, it's "good").

Although I don't know my exact performance-related, day-to-day gas mileage, I do know it will cost me $84.30 to drive from St. Louis to Chicago at today's prices thanks to aaafuelcostcalculator.com, which lets you plug in your start, destination, make and model and gives you an calculation of miles, gallons and cost. The only problem is it only has larger cities as start and end points, so you have to add a little cost unless you can teleport to a larger city and start from there. Then again, why would you be driving if you could teleport?

I digress. The site gasbuddy.com gives daily updates of the days high and low gas prices by state. Family vacation? Use the color map to test children's geography. Or take the train. Mass transit is looking awfully appealing lately. The same $84.30 drive to Chitown would be a $55 train ride lasting only 5 hours and 40 minutes.

Or try something new. Park that Suburban and rent a smaller car. Yes the kids might complain about Johnny pinching or Sally drooling, but with the money you save on gas, you can buy them an ice cream to shut them up. And if Sally drops her double scoop, don't worry, it's a rental.

In the meantime, if you decide you really, really can't afford an out-of-town trip, stay here. Go to the Red House, the Glenn House, the River Heritage Museum. Take the time to smell the homegrown roses in the City of Ros — er — City Where the River Turns a Thousand Tales.