All Blog Posts from Eye On The Road

Independence, Mo., the hometown of Harry Truman. Did you know when Truman was president, gas cost a whopping 21 cents a gallon? When yeah when we left this week the national average was 3.72. It's now 3.79. And a lot has happened in those five days. It's a trip we made separately but a story I wanted to tell together with Jeff.

Jeff Glor: Our team began out west, where tall gas prices mean short vacations. Just look at Mike Morrasy. He packed up the RV, and drove a whole three miles away from home this year.

Nancy Cordes: After leaving New York's Central Park, our first stop was Pennsylvania's Hersey Park. It's one of those regional attractions that's banking on Americans staying closer to home this summer.

But the food industry may be feeling the pinch more painfully than anyone. At Kennedy's Bakery in Cambridge, Ohio, they're paying three times more for flour than they did last year.

"You can't raise prices enough, can you?" I asked Patty Kennedy, the owner.

"No, I can't, or else I’m going to loose all the customers," she said.

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We made it.

Independence, MO., the hometown of Harry Truman. The buck stops here, and so do our cars.

We're outside the city's courthouse (thankfully not in it, considering the occasional parking or speeding ticket), preparing for this evening's broadcast, where Nancy and I will wrap up the trip from Main Street.

We've gone a combined total of 3,517 miles in the last five days. The cars have taken a pounding, and so have our bodies. None of us have exercised in a week, we've eaten way too much junk food, and gotten way too little sleep.

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With just one more day on the road, the end is in sight. And thank goodness. It's raining and windy - we barely got our tent to stay up for last night's Evening News piece!

But we're looking forward to meeting up with Team Glor near Kansas City - and looking forward to some great barbecue. Kansas City is famous for it. Does anyone have any suggestions for the best BBQ in the city?

From race car drivers driving less in Kansas to encouraging bicycling over driving in St. Louis, the times, they are a-continuing to change due to the stratospheric price of gas -- as Jeff Glor and Nancy Cordes continue to find out as they drive toward each other from opposite coasts in the CBS News Series, "Eye on the Road."

On Friday, Glor checked in from the Whiskey Lake Raceway in Junction City, Kan.

He told Early Show viewers, "There's a car culture in many parts of this country, and it's changing.

"Race cars, racing -- people love it. A team that was with me used to be out six nights-a-week. Now, it's only one night-a-week. They used to go as far away as Florida to race these vehicles. Now, it's only 15 miles away from home. And the reason is the prices. It just costs too much to get here and to fill up these vehicles -- $6.50 a gallon for racing fuel."

Doug Thompson, who runs the Kansas Auto Racing Museum, told Glor, "It's not the same as it used to be. The gas prices have just caused a great deal of those problems. But we have as much fun when we go on the one night. We don't have six nights worth of fun on one night."

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St. Louis, like almost every town along our route, is struggling to absorb the higher fuel costs these days. The city budgeted $3 million for fuel this year, but is on track to exceed that by nearly $1 million.

On our way here we stopped in Louisville, Ky., where they're seeing a domino effect that starts with high gas prices and ends with lost jobs.

When we arrived in Louisville, we headed straight for the Breslin Park Pool.

Half the city's public pools will be padlocked this summer, leaving the little girls high and dry.

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Don't get too excited by this sign for $2 gas. We came across this station today - but it's closed down and boarded up.

Ah, back in the day...

High fuel costs in Louisville, Ky., are forcing people to use public transit. But at the same time, the city is cutting back on routes.

Also, we got kicked out of a gas station. Just click below for more.

We just passed Lowland, Colo.

While that name isn't quite as cool as that of where we stopped for gas on Tuesday – Lovelock, Nev. – it does describe the topography. We've gone from the Rockies to the vast, flat fields of the Midwest. On day four of our trip, the sun's gone into hiding. After three days of mostly crystal clear skies, it's overcast and windy as we move toward Kansas.

We had a decent meal last night inside the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, but healthy food has been the exception, not the rule. Producer Mark Hooper is currently consuming a Slim Jim and a can of Coke.

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This story appeared on The Early Show

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When we rolled into Louisville yesterday, the headline in the local paper was about gas hitting $4 a gallon. That's the case at 12 gas stations in the city. And residents say they can't believe how quickly the price is skyrocketing. It's up 13 cents, on average, here in Louisville, just since Monday.

Four-dollar-a-gallon gas is fast becoming the talk of the town.

One man showed me the receipt from a fill-up he'd just completed and remarked, "Seventy bucks -- good God Almighty!"

Another said the prices make "a person angry."

Anger is just one of the many emotions motorists are feeling as the price of gas keeps rising.

"All you can do is laugh about it," one man chuckled.

But it's no laughing matter. According to many oil analysts, $4 a gallon could be the national average very soon.

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This story appeared on The Early Show

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It's the same story here in Denver that I've encountered across the country: Everybody's feeling the pinch of increasing gas prices, and it's changing how they spend their money.

Larry Clark delivers sandwiches to make a living -- but it's not much of a living these days. He's getting squeezed by the high price of gas on one hand, and low tips on the other. Customers already struggling to pay the bills aren't leaving him much. His tips are down 30 percent.

We went with him and saw exactly what he's talking about.

First stop: Nothing extra.

"She said, 'Thank you,' " Clark says. "Thank-yous are nice, but they don't help us buy our gas."

Some aren't even giving customers the option.

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