I finally get to fly out of RFD!

Add comment March 25th, 2008

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did fly from Chicago Rockford International Airport to Springfield last May to cover a Chamber of Commerce event. But that was for business and only a 35 minute flight.

Now I’m going as a “civilian”, flying on the new Detroit route at the end of June. While I’ve been to DTW (a great airport) once before, this will add Southern Skyways to my airline list. Sadly it’s only a piddly 10 right now (Eastern, Continental, ATA, American, Northwest, United, Midwest, Southwest, Aer Lingus and Allegiant for the Springfield trip). I’ll add AirTran also this summer for another trip.

(Now you see why my wife calls me a “dork”).

We have an exciting vacation planned - transportation and baseball! We’re flying to Detroit to catch a Tigers game, then renting a car to Pittsburgh (where my beloved Yankees will take on the Pirates … and I’ll take on a Primanti Brothers sandwich), then taking Amtrak or a rental car to Washington, D.C., for a long weekend with a Nationals game, an Orioles game and time with friends and family, followed by a an Amtrak trip to Cincinnati for a Reds game. Then back to Chicago on Amtrak and a Van Galder bus to Rockford.

Basically my vacation will resemble this:

Today’s fuel price musings - Not much to see here

2 comments March 25th, 2008

A boring day at the pump, but no news is good news (data courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):

Gasoline: Rockford’s prices didn’t move an inch, staying at $3.33 a gallon. Quad Cities jumped past us into second place at $3.34 a gallon, and the prices in other metro areas generally didn’t move much. The state average dropped half a cent and stands at $3.35 a gallon. The national average is at $3.26 a gallon, down half a cent from yesterday. Illinois is tied for the 9th-highest gas prices in the country. I told you there wasn’t much going on.

Diesel: Rockford dropped almost three cents to $4.09. We slipped behind Decatur (just over $4.09) into fifth place for diesel prices in Illinois. The state as whole backed off its record pace, dropping a penny to $4.15 a gallon today. East St. Louis and Quincy both slipped to slightly below $4 a gallon, and wouldn’t it be lovely if we could join them? Not likely, the national average is still at $4.03, down only a fraction of a cent. Illinois has the 10th-highest prices in the country.