Vacation or Staycation for July 4th Weekend?

It's Forth of July of weekend and with gas prices more than $4 many are staying close to home for vacation.Some are going to Chester Frost Park and to Harrison Bay State Park. They say the money they save in gas they can spend for extra things they wouldn't normally do if they were going further away.

" We just don't have the extra money to do go to the pool and restaurants and stuff because we're using the money for gas to go. This year we couldn't even afford to do the electrical and water site. We had to take the primitive site, that's the difference too," said Cheryl Bryant from Georgetown.

For many campers like Lynn Daughtery who lives less than 10 miles from Harrison Bay coming to the campground is a family tradition. They've been coming to the same slot for the last 45 years and they've become even more keen on the trip recently.

" We've been going to Florida like to Saint Augustine with gas prices we chose to stay close to home," said Lynn Daugherty from Ooltewah.

" We live about 40 minutes from here. You feel like we're on vacation, even away from home, Just don't think about work," said Tony Welch, from Dalton.

State Park Rangers say they have seen 4 times the campers here this year than they did in 2007. Campers say that meant getting to the campground and waiting sometimes for hours just to get that perfect spot by the water.

"We came on Sunday. My husband came up before church and we waited about 4 hours. He came back about 2:30 and the spot was available so we took it," said Daugherty.

"Campers say they enjoy being close to home and they can run home to get anything they need. But they're also far enough away that they still feel like they're on vacation without burning all that extra gas.