HONOR -- A neighbor's worn-out swing set was headed for the dump before Becky Link salvaged it for her 4-year-old daughter, Riley.
Link, of Honor, couldn't afford such a luxury. She makes $7.50 an hour at JC Penny in Traverse City, but after spending $10 in gas to get there and $20 for daycare, she leaves with only $30 after each eight-hour shift.
Her fiance is getting a third job to try and make ends meet.
"They're making it very hard for young people to be successful," she said.
Link is far from alone in her struggles as the poor economy hammers a growing number of people in Michigan and in her community, a spot-on-the-map Benzie County burg tucked at the bottom of a hill on U.S. 31.
Honor's bread and butter is tourism -- the folks who flock to nearby Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore or ply the Platte River for trout or the coho salmon introduced here in 1966.
But residents say vacationers just aren't coming to Honor like they used to, and steep gas prices deserve much of the blame. If tourists do visit, they're apt to bring their own supplies to avoid spending more money in town.
Dan Bolling knows that story well and said business has been "dead" at his Sunny Woods corner store and motel.
"It's beyond tough," Bolling said. "This is the first year I'll close the store in winter, unless something happens."
Bolling already shuttered his motel the past two winters and likely will do so again this year.
He cut loose all his employees, so he and his wife handle all the chores.
"I work from daylight to dark every day, seven days a week, because that's all I can do," he said.
But nearby Hard Times pizzeria has done well since opening in April.
"I was worried to the point that my stomach hurt until the day we opened up and had a steady stream of customers," co-owner Jim Gray said. "It's been a pleasant surprise how well it's done."
Business partner Don Schreiber said high gas prices can help out towns like Honor.
Locals are more likely to patronize community businesses than drive to Traverse City for dinner.
Honor resident Kevin Short used to think nothing of cruising the 35 miles or so to Traverse City.
Now, he and his wife try to make one trip a week and offer to pick things up for their friends.
"Anything that isn't necessary, we don't do it," he said.
Short is retired on disability, but his wife works and he does odds and ends to earn extra cash.
He's made a few hundred dollars picking up scrap metal, and he saves money on groceries by raising pigs and chickens and growing vegetables.
"You gotta pinch them where you can," he said.
Shannon Evans and her husband cut spending on food and entertainment so they can afford higher prices at the pump.
Evans, of Lake Ann, works in Honor for the county road commission, and her husband is a salesman who burns a lot of fuel for his job.
"We've had to add about $400 a month in gas to our budget, and our income hasn't gone up," she said. "We have to really watch what we spend at the grocery store."
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