The Daily Money: The US county with the highest gas prices; lessons from our return to the office

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Happy Wednesday, Daily Money readers. Jayme Deerwester back with you.

This county has the highest gas prices in the US

The average U.S. gas price continues to reach record highs, with every state averaging at least $4 a gallon, and experts say it will continue to climb. 

The average for a gallon of gas is $4.52, according to AAA, a 15-cent jump from last week and 35-cent increase from when the national record was broken in March. Diesel prices also jumped a cent from Thursday to $5.57.

But nowhere is it more expensive than in Mono County, California. Prices in this picturesque area, located five hours north of Los Angeles and five hours east of San Francisco, topped $6.75 this week, the highest county average nationwide, with some stations charging as much as $7.19 in mid-May.

The county, pronounced MOH’-no, is also at the extreme end of the colliding crises facing most Americans: Inflation driving up prices on basic goods, a severe housing shortage that forces many of its workers to commute as much as two hours a day and the spiraling fuel costs that compound everything. 

"The hits definitely keep coming," says Linda Dore, who owns a restaurant with her husband that has pivoted multiple times since COVID began and is now a takeout cafe. "Gas prices are a huge concern. The housing market is another huge concern. The American dream to have a little ma-and-pa business is really a struggle." 

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What we learned from going back to the office

Like a lot of businesses, USA TODAY has recently reopened its headquarters and bureaus, and many of my colleagues have begun returning to the office for part of the week. Here's what they learned from the experience.

For Morgan Hines, our New York-based cruise reporter, getting ready for work is a lot harder than she remembered. Pre-pandemic, she'd risen at 5:45 a.m. for a pre-work spin class. Now it's all she can do to get dressed and out the door – and she's lucky if she remembers to bring lunch and her phone.

 "Getting ready for the office after COVID – and spending the day there – feels like a monumental task filled with anxiety," she writes.

Theme park and national park correspondent Eve Chen discovered a different problem when she returned to our Atlanta bureau: The excitement of being around co-workers and general office noises now makes it impossible to concentrate.

"It's not like my home is a fortress of solitude," she says, recalling what it was like when she, her husband and children were all working or studying from their house in Georgia.

"All those pale in comparison to the volume –  in size and sound – of going back to an open office space with multiple colleagues," she discovered.

🎧 Mood music 🎧 

It may be Wednesday, but the Bangles' "Manic Monday" seems an appropriate choice in honor of our "return to the office" series.

"Have to catch an early train, got to be to work by nine. And if I had an aeroplane, I still couldn't make it on time. 'Cause it takes me so long just to figure out what I'm gonna wear. Blame it on the train, but the boss is already there."

LISTEN WHILE YOU WORK: You can hear just about every song quoted in the newsletter on the Daily Money Mood Music playlist on Spotify.