I'm a light plane pilot and the cost of fuel is really starting to hit me

I'm a private pilot with 200+ hours, flying a Cessna 172 for personal use only. I pay $43 per gallon, which is more or less in the middle for my area. My plane gets about 12 gallons per hour. <br><br>My total expenses for the plane are very low, aside from fuel. It's a brand new plane, only has 60 hours on it. I paid $410 per hour for the plane, which covers everything but fuel. That means my total cost to fly is $493 ($43 fuel, $410 plane).<br><br>I'm hitting the wall. I'm a retired Army Captain, and my wife and I both work. We have two teenage daughters, and we love flying together as a family. We take weekend trips together whenever we can. I was planning to go out to visit my brother in SC this fall, and we were planning a trip to go to a music festival in FL. Now I can barely afford to drive across town.<br><br>What in the world is driving the price of fuel so high? It's getting crazy, and I can only imagine what it's doing to commercial airlines.