Geary,
>Couple of questions for the Texas Caver use group related to the price of gas
>and caving.
I can provide an Eastern perspective, since I now live in Virgina and
cave in VA and WV.
>Has the price of gas changed your caving habits?
Not at all. We cave as much as possible. :-)
>Are you still caving as much but closer to home or are you caving less
>frequently but on longer trips.
No change really. Weekend caving in VA and WV with one or two trips a
year to Mexico.
>Have you switched to a smaller vehicle or are you car pooling more.
Still using the same vehicles. (My '84 Toyota has nearly 450,000 on the
odometer, and still gets over 20 mpg.) Car pooling is rarely practical for us
because there are few other cavers near us going to where we go. However lots
of our friends car pool, and have been doing so so years.
>Have you seen the number of folks attending grotto meetings increase or
>decline over the last 6 months?
We rarely go to grotto meetings. However our caving project weekends are
as well attended as ever. Just last weekend, for example, there were at least
30 cavers in Germany Valley, WV. They typically come from OH, PA, MD, NJ, NY,
VA, and WV.
>What will be the long term impact on caving?
Other than increased car pooling by those who can, I don't see much
foreseeable change. The only thing I have noticed is that people who used to
drive a lot further to come to WV, like TAG cavers, are now more reluctant to
do so specifically because of cost. I agree with Ediger that there may be a
return to larger vehicles that can carry more people, even if the vehicle
mileage per se is lower. That used to be the norm, not so much due to fuel
cost, but because relatively few cavers had capable vehicles. Those that did
have big trucks or buses took a lot of people.
Mark Minton
