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  "We want to get the word out to people in New Mexico, Colorado and Missouri. You can drive a short way and enjoy a great family experience on your vacation and save money at the same time.” ---Chuck Mai, American Automobile Association’s Oklahoma Spokesman, on vacationing in Sooner Country this year Maybe you’ve seen it: The American Auto Association publishes a TourBook travel guide that lists the most and least expensive U.S. vacation spots in a given year. The good news for Missourians is that some of AAA's least-expensive travel destinations for 2008 are not wildly far from where we live!

Hi! Thanks for taking a break from your holiday festivities to check out what’s cookin’ here at semo.net on this Memorial Day holiday! We thought it would be best on this day to share reminders of how the holiday came to be, and of what it was, in fact, established to commemorate. For the holiday today, we may have traveled some distance to enjoy the company of family and friends; now, we may go the barbeque/four-wheeler/fishing/boating/picnicking/Branson route---trying to squeeze every bit of excitement we can out of these precious moments away from the daily grind!

“I really do believe [a certain U.S. presidential hopeful]…wants to change the U.S. into a third world country. That is pretty much what [the candidate] said the other day when chastising us for using too much energy.” — Posted by “S. Henderson”, #31 New York Times, “The Caucus” Blog  May 21, 2008   “The candidate”, as you may have discerned, might have been John McCain or Barack Obama; both have spoken at some length on conservation in their campaigns. But our discussion here is not a political one; so let us rather, for a moment, take a closer look at the reality-challenged “S. Henderson” for possible insights into our own energy future.

“If you think $40 a barrel is bad, wait till it reaches $60, then $80 then $100 plus. The golden age of cheap and plentiful fuel is over, so we’d better get used to it.” --Posted by “Rob” from New Zealand BBC News Blog May 24, 2004   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3736917.stm   Jeepers! "Rob" really called it, didn't he? Way back in 2004!  Well, in 2008, you don't need a crystal ball to see that there's no way around this: We've got to rethink the whole business of "getting from here to there" so that it can work to our advantage, and not our detriment.

“…It’s amusing to read the hard-done American stories. I wonder if [Americans] realise that the price difference from one side of the Pond to the other is 300%? Two bucks a gallon in the US; well over 6 bucks a gallon in the UK..." --“Bennett” from Cambridge, England… BBC News Blog May 24, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3736917.stm   We’re catching up to you, "Bennett". And we don’t find it amusing at all. Wo! The honeymoon is so completely over, as if I need to point that out! Yes, the American love affair with cheap gasoline has come to an abrupt, very unromantic close due to our sudden exposure to some devastating political, economic, and environmental realities---the kinds of issues that have been affecting other parts