Travel in the U.S. is expected to be heavy this Fourth of July weekend similar to Memorial Day, and prices are on the rise.

The country is emerging from the worst pandemic in a hundred years and people's pent-up frustration from the COVID lockdowns is driving the travel boom.

Get our free mobile app

The national average for a regular gallon of gasoline stands at $3.12.

Massachusetts is at $2.99 a gallon, California is the highest at $4.28, and Mississippi is the lowest at $2.74 a gallon, according to aaa.com.

Gas is 42% higher than it was a year ago.

Gas stations across the country are also running out of gas, according to cnn.com.

At the same time, many gas stations don’t have gas at all. It has nothing to do with the price, or even the supply, of gasoline—it’s due to a shortage of tank truck drivers coupled with rising demand that is causing supply chain bottlenecks and shortages. -cnn.com

Most gas stations in Pittsfield are right at or around $2.99 a gallon. Cumberland Farms in Dalton currently sits at $3.01, according to gasbuddy.com.

Gas prices over the years have fluctuated, and people usually blame or credit the sitting U.S. president; however, usually it has nothing to do with it.

I remember in the summer of 2008 I paid $4.13 a gallon for regular!

In the winter of 2009, I remember paying $1.60!

If you live in the U.K., you'll be paying over $6.00 for a gallon of gas, but here in the states it's a different story.

WE WANNA KNOW...

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

CHECK IT OUT: See the 100 most popular brands in America

More From WBEC FM