Now might be the opportune time to fill up the RV and head out on the open road for some family travel. Fuel prices have been unusually low this summer, and it looks like the trend is continuing.

Prices at the pump have been dropping in parts of the U.S. Prices typically rise in the summer, but this August has seen the lowest prices for gasoline for the month since August 2010.

This information comes from the AAA, according to a recent report. Those prices typically fluctuate during the period between July and August, but this year has been a steady decrease in prices at the gas pump. Many motorists, especially in climate zones that experience harsh winters, travel and go on vacations during the summer. They expect the higher prices.

Overall, gas prices dropped more than 10 cents during the month of July alone, as a recent Tech Times article pointed out toward the end of last month. The lowest prices were seen in the U.S. Midwest, an area with vast amounts of highway and Interstate travel.

The drops in gas price were noted to be a result of favorable weather conditions, or rather a lack of major weather disasters like hurricanes that have impeded production in the past and driven prices upward. There were other factors as well, as analysts pointed out for the sector. One of those had to do with potential issues in the Middle East that worried many, but also didn't prove disastrous for oil production.

"Crude prices have dropped in reaction to Libya having sizably hiked its oil production, and because Iraq's oil output has not been smashed by violence and turmoil there," said Trilby Lundberg, publisher of an earlier AAA survey.

Massachussets gas prices dropped a couple of cents this month, according to one other report citing more AAA data. That amounts to the lowest weekly average gas price for the state since mid-April and this week's change is 11 cents lower than it was a month ago. The Massachusetts average is currently about 6 cents more than the national average of $3.50 per gallon.

Rhode Island also saw an approximate 4 cent drop in gas price, according to another similar report. That state also had an average price higher than the national average.