LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Our co-host Michel Martin hit the road on Wednesday with producer Adam Bearne to see how people feel about the effects of war, confronted with one of them at the gas pump.
MICHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: Good morning.
ADAM BEARNE, BYLINE: Your chariot awaits.
MARTIN: Thank you.
So it's a chilly spring morning when we leave Washington, D.C., heading for southwest Ohio.
Well, you know, the best reason you drive - right? - is so you don't have to pack properly.
BEARNE: You just throw everything in a bag?
MARTIN: Several bags.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: The whole trip should be about eight hours of driving.
(SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLE BEEPING)
MARTIN: As we head for the highway out of D.C., we pass a gas station. Regular gas is selling for 4.19 a gallon. After about an hour, we pull off near Frederick, Maryland. We stop at a Royal Farms. Richard Enoh (ph) is on the clock, driving for Uber and Lyft. But for the last two hours, he's just been parked at the gas station, sitting in his white Honda SUV.
RICHARD ENOH: I need, like, a trip that would be maybe an hour. They can pay me, like, $50.
MARTIN: He says shorter rides don't earn him enough to pay for gas anymore.
ENOH: I used to fill the tank for, like, maybe $43, but now it takes me, like, $67.
BEARNE: Oh, gosh.
MARTIN: Over at the fuel pumps, Rob Clise (ph) is putting gas in his white Volkswagen Jetta.
Have you noticed the increase in gas prices?
ROB CLISE: Yeah, yeah. It's only money (laughter).
MARTIN: He's laughing, but Clise has been tracking the price of crude carefully.
CLISE: Oil dropped $20 a barrel last night because of the ceasefire.
MARTIN: It was actually about $15 a barrel, but he's close.
CLISE: It takes forever for it to trickle down - when the prices drop - to trickle down at the pump. And that's, you know, what I don't like about that.
BEARNE: Is it worth it, do you think? - the war and putting up the prices and...
CLISE: Oh, absolutely. I fully support Trump a hundred percent. It was long overdue. Every president talked about it, and no one had the guts to do it. Either we deal with it now or the future generations deal with somebody with a nuclear bomb.
MARTIN: We don't need gas ourselves yet, so we get back on the road. After two more hours, we pull over again.
(SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLE DOOR CLOSING)
MARTIN: OK. So we're at a Sheetz in Frostburg, Maryland. Regular is 4.19 a gallon. We're at a half a tank. So let's see how much it costs to fill up.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPING)
MARTIN: The numbers on the meter tick up.
I'm already upset (laughter). It's $16 for four gallons. But that's - I don't know. Look, if you're on a budget, that's not a joke.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPING)
MARTIN: Noah Haddaway (ph) parks his Subaru near a truck full of barking dogs.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOGS BARKING)
MARTIN: Haddaway is not pleased by the numbers he's seeing either.
NOAH HADDAWAY: Obviously, the gas prices have increased, thanks to our beautiful president - right? - if you can hear the sarcasm in my voice. Yeah, it sucks.
MARTIN: We ask him if he gives any credence to President Trump's argument that paying more for gas now will be worth it in the long run.
HADDAWAY: I wouldn't trust anything that the man has to say. And someone who campaigned on lower gas prices, and it just keeps climbing and climbing.
MARTIN: In his case, climbing to almost $60 for a full tank.
HADDAWAY: It is what it is.
MARTIN: Haddaway leaves, and we get back on the road, too. We cross briefly into West Virginia, then into Pennsylvania, and then finally into Ohio. We stop again because we finally noticed some lower gas prices - 3.99 a gallon.
(SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLE DOOR CLOSING)
MARTIN: Where are we?
BEARNE: Consulting Google Maps, we are near Zanesville, Ohio.
MARTIN: In Zanesville. OK. Got it.
BEARNE: Which is a great name.
MARTIN: Kevin Holden (ph) has already filled up the tank of his SUV and is about to get back on the road home to Weirton, West Virginia.
KEVIN HOLDEN: I just put in $67, I think.
MARTIN: Holden has seen prices around here go up fast.
HOLDEN: Couple of days ago when we were driving through here, it was 40 cents less.
MARTIN: Like everyone else we've talked with, he knows it's because of the war in Iran.
HOLDEN: And the Strait of Hormuz is closed. And I know Trump's doing everything he can to try to get it back open, and I am willing to put up with some pain. I'm retired Air Force myself, so I've been through some tough times to hopefully have a better outcome.
MARTIN: Even though it means changing his driving habits.
HOLDEN: My truck - my F150 - that takes 30 gallons of gas. So that's getting up there - around a hundred dollars or more. I drive this more because it gets better gas mileage.
MARTIN: Many Americans can't make choices like that. We arrive in Springfield, Ohio, after sunset. The entire trip cost us $51.26. The drive home isn't likely to be any cheaper.
With Adam Bearne, I'm Michel Martin in Springfield, Ohio. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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