MEDFORD (AP) -- Gas prices have reached such dizzying heights that a bill with Ben Franklin on it may not fill the tank.

"It cost me $101 to fill up my Suburban," said Greg Bailey, who owns the Valley View 76 gas station in Ashland. "I almost fainted."

Many gas stations in Southern Oregon posted prices close to $3 Wednesday, but the Valley View 76 and the Shell station at the north Ashland interchange both posted prices of one-tenth of a cent under $3.

Bailey, owner of the Valley View 76, predicts prices are going to keep jumping and should be higher than $3 by Friday.

"Nobody wants to be the first one over $3 a gallon with all the TV reporters there," said Bailey. "We're all a bunch of chickens."

Not so south of the border. One motorist reported paying $3.29 a gallon in Crescent City, Calif., for regular-grade gas.

Bailey said it's difficult enough watching motorists gasp at prices that have jumped 20 cents or more in the past week.

"Who wants to be the first person?" he said. "I already have to wear a flak jacket out there."

Georgia Brouillette of Graham, Wash., noticed the price of regular was $2.98 when she checked in to a hotel in Stockton, Calif., Tuesday night, only to see the price jump to $3.05 the next morning.

"It was a rude awakening," Brouillette said. "It didn't pay for me to sleep."

Elliott Eki, spokesperson for AAA, said the price of gas jumped 17 cents in the Medford area in one day. The AAA fuel gauge report average price of $2.82 cents posted Wednesday morning was already out of date by the afternoon, he said.

The situation could get worse if it takes two to three months to restore electricity to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico as some experts have predicted, Eki said. Thirty percent of the crude oil for the United States comes through the Gulf of Mexico, but 50 percent of the gasoline supply is converted there.

Ashland resident Bud Lininger, who uses a mid-grade gas in his SUV, said Wednesday was the first day he had spent more than $3 a gallon and the first time he'd spent $50 to fill up.

"I don't have any choice but to pay it," he said. "But I won't do as much recreational driving."

Lininger said he thinks gas prices have been artificially set low and thinks this might push the country away from its heavy dependence on oil.

"Our fuel has been subsidized for years by our defense policies," he said.