Energy Musings - September 30, 2024

Many of our long-time readers enjoy reading about our experiences and impressions about the economy from our 1,800-mile drive from our summer home in Rhode Island to Houston.

Coming Home From Summer In Rhode Island

As is our custom, we give our impressions of the economy derived from observations during our 1,800-mile drive from our Rhode Island summer home to our permanent home in Houston.  It was another two-day drive and happened earlier than usual.  We needed to get home before heading to Ft. Worth to meet our great-grandson. 

The earlier trip limited our time in Rhode Island following our three-week vacation in Southeast Asia.  We flew to Sydney, Australia, to catch a charter flight to the Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal), where we boarded a cruise ship for a two-week expedition through the Russell Islands, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, and ending in Guam. 

Returning from Guam required a 4-hour flight to Tokyo, a two-hour layover, then a 14-hour flight to Newark.  In New York, our scheduled 5-hour layover became six because our flight to Providence was an hour late.  We arrived at our Rhode Island house just after midnight after having traveled non-stop for nearly 30 hours. 

Trips home from Asia are exhausting because of the length and the time/date change.  Our remaining time was spent packing, arranging final winter details, and closing the house. 

Our drive began slightly earlier than usual.  Fortunately, the traffic was a breeze.  There was no backup in New Haven.  We are not sure why, maybe because many trucks were still parked in the service plazas undergoing their mandated rest. 

Connecticut service plaza gas prices were interesting.  Normally, they vary widely from the Rhode Island end to the New York line.  Regular was priced at $3.29 a gallon at all the service plazas from the Rhode Island line until Bridgeport.  At that plaza, the price dropped to $3.19 (comparable to Rhode Island prices).  The drop surprised us as normally prices rise closer to New York.  We were not disappointed.  In Darien, the state’s last service plaza, regular gasoline was $3.49.  Once again, the state’s richest county had the most expensive fuel.  (More on gasoline later.)  

Before reaching Fairfield County, we were feeling good about our progress.  As we passed through Westport heading toward Norwalk, an electric sign alerted us that Rt. 7 (a major highway between Norwalk and Danbury) was nine miles away but would take 30 minutes.  Uh oh. 

It was a construction delay, due to the rebuilding of the Norwalk bridge over I-95, which was destroyed last May when a fuel truck under it caught fire.  We were forced to detour to the Merritt Parkway on our way to Rhode Island as the highway was closed so they could remove the damaged structure. 

We expected improved travel speeds once beyond the bridge construction.  However, in Darien, another electric highway sign greeted us with news that the New York State line was 12 miles ahead but would take 40 minutes to get there.  Another travel warning proved to be accurate.  These delays cost us an hour of travel time. 

Going through Westchester County, across the Hudson River, and through New Jersey was easy.  Traffic was not bad as there were few trucks.  Again, many truck stops and rest areas were half to two-thirds full of tractor-trailers with their drivers on mandated rest times.  This was late morning. 

When entering Pennsylvania, we were pleased that most of the road construction on I-78 was complete, making that portion of the trip pleasant.  For years, we have dealt with road construction, narrowed lanes, and heavy truck traffic.  Now the traffic was more spread out, making it appear that there was less traffic. 

We stopped for lunch at a new McDonalds in Hersey, home to Hersey’s chocolates.  The restaurant layout differed as well as the decor.  We saw engineered wood-like flooring in the food area and in the restrooms ‒ no boring green or blue tiled floors and walls here. 

Although the volume of truck traffic on I-81 heading south increased, our progress continued.  Again, many trucks were parked in the rest areas.  On this stretch of road, we encountered several accidents and construction sites that slowed traffic.  Fortunately, we never came to a complete stop, just miles of rolling along at single-digit speeds, losing more time. 

We were surprised to see Virginia and Tennessee require most or all trucks to be weighed upon entering the state.  None of the other states seem to be as aggressive.  The weigh stations are closed in Connecticut and Rhode Island.  We did not see any trucks going through the Pennsylvania weigh station on I-78, but they use weigh-in-motion systems to flag specific trucks and clear others. 

Are Virginia and Tennessee more diligent in ensuring that trucks do not exceed the federal weight limits and avoid paying the fees owed to use the state’s roads?  In researching truck weighing, we learned that trucks can only travel one mile from interstate highways to access terminals, food, fuel, and rest facilities.  We had not realized there are legal reasons beyond convenience for all the truck stops and truck terminals to be close to highways. 

We reached Blacksburg, Virginia, home of Virginia Tech, for dinner about 6:30 pm.  When we walked into the Cracker Barrel, we were surprised at the wait.  They took our name and phone number.  We were texted about a 10-minute wait, which proved accurate. 

While eating, we plotted our stop for the night.  We targeted Knoxville.  Finding a hotel room wasn’t a problem, probably because it was the middle of the week.  We didn’t have to contend with people in town for a University of Tennessee football game. 

We stayed at a Hampton Inn on the west side of Knoxville.  It was easily accessed and surprisingly full.  The next morning the parking lot was half empty as many guests left early.  This would be another long day of traveling, but traditionally easier.  We expected to arrive home late. 

By spending the night west of Knoxville, we were quickly out of its morning traffic and heading to Chattanooga, Georgia, and Alabama.  Georgia was doing some road work, but Alabama has been working on its highways for years.  We encountered several multi-mile stretches of single-lane traffic while the other lanes were rebuilt.  Where Alabama has completed the reconstruction, the roads are smooth and comfortable.  We wonder how many more years the state will be rebuilding its highway. 

When we stopped for lunch in the Tuscaloosa area, we were perplexed by the location of the towering Golden Arches sign and the restaurant.  They were on opposite sides of a huge truck stop.  We drove toward the sign, discovering that the restaurant was elsewhere.   We crossed the truck stop, dodging several tractor-trailers, to enter the McDonald’s location.  We pulled into a parking spot next to a dark green pickup truck.  The lettering on the side of the vehicle said, “Highway Transportation Enforcement Division.”  The driver was staring into the parking lot of the truck stop.  Was he watching for truckers in violation of some rule? 

A quick lunch had us back on the road to Mississippi, one of our favorite drives.  We love the light traffic, the tall pines, the broad medians, and the smooth roads.  It is a nice interlude before hitting I-12 toward Baton Rouge.  This is another highway that always has construction as the amount of traffic has strained the two-lane sections of the road.  Make them three lanes and the traffic flows faster. 

At our hotel, we emailed several friends in Louisiana and Mississippi asking about possible travel issues from Hurricane Francine’s recent Gulf Coast visit.  No one saw any issue other than the Baton Rouge traffic.  Great call! 

Where I-10 and I-12 merge in Baton Rouge is a real traffic crunch.  Always has been.  Add some road construction and it was a slowly moving parking lot.  We were fortunate to get over to the fast lane, which exits to the Mississippi River bridge.  As we crawled toward the exit, we were wowed by the sight of six lanes almost full of trucks.  The picture reinforced how important I-10 is for the Gulf Coast. 

Once over the bridge, traffic opened up, but we had to deal with driving directly into the setting sun.  We were surprised at the low water in the Atchafalaya Swamp given that the hurricane has recently dumped substantial rainwater in the area and the storm surge might have pushed water into the basin.  It was a sharp contrast with what we saw in early May. 

Dinner was in Lake Charles.  As we ate, we wondered about the final leg of our journey given that our navigation system said it had updated our route.  We encountered road construction approaching the bridge over the Sabine River marking the Texas/Louisiana border.  We were told to take an upcoming exit and head toward Bridge City. 

Bridge City is the gateway to Port Arthur and the massive refinery and petrochemical plants that form the backbone of Houston’s energy business.  We followed the route across a high bridge over an inlet into the Sabine River.  The horizon was a mass of lights illuminating the various plant structures.  Fortunately, we were westbound when a caravan of super-long trailer trucks hauling new tanks destined for a petroleum project in the region were heading eastward.  You move these behemoths late at night because there is less traffic. 

Eventually, we curved around Port Arthur and wound up back on I-10.  We had seen (in the dark) a part of the Houston economy few people beyond workers, vendors, and residents ever visit.  Then came our next shock – Houston traffic! 

How quickly we forget the multi-lane highways full of cars and trucks racing along at high speeds at 10:30 at night!  After spending four and half months in an area where a traffic horror is a line of cars at an intersection, Houston traffic required a quick adjustment. 

We shifted from our relaxed driving mode to the attentive and reactive driving mode as we swung onto I-69 South heading for the Westchase Tollway and home.  This adrenaline rush had us wide awake for the remainder of the trip.  We completed another successful 1,800-mile drive from Rhode in two days. 

Two observations from the trip.  First: gasoline prices.  Previously, we discussed Connecticut’s gasoline for their consistent pricing except for the richest county where they soared.  Throughout the trip, most fuel purchased was around $3 a gallon.  Our biggest surprise was the Buc-ee’s near Knoxville, where we paid $2.419 a gallon.  What a pleasant surprise. 

Our second observation: is the economy.  We encountered fewer trucks on this trip than in recent years.  Many trucks were parked in truck stops and rest areas during the day, but that has become common since commercial truck driver work/rest standards were changed a few years ago. 

We debated two questions.  Was the reduced truck traffic because shippers had diverted container ships from East Coast ports in anticipation of the pending dockworkers’ strike?  Or were fewer trucks reflecting a slowing economy?  Some economic data has suggested such a slowing, and it likely explains the fewer trucks. 

Our observations provide only a snapshot of the economy over the two-day, 1,800-mile drive.  We believe the observations over the years give a quick read on the economy, although they are anecdotal.