Feeling A Little Gassy Today

I had a pleasant surprise today while out doing my usual payday errands. I saw that gas is back below $3.00 per gallon, which is great news by itself, but the fact that it cost me less than $50 to fill up my tank put a smile on my face.

Yep, I paid $2.95 per gallon at the Maryland Pkwy/Flamingo Sinclair station. And yeah, I'm aware that it's cheaper at Terrible's, but I've discovered that Terrible's really doesn't want to sell gas. While they are usually the cheapest by about a nickel a gallon, the hoops they make you jump through just to pump the gas aren't really worth it. I mean, seriously, why have a credit card point-of-sale terminal outside on the gas pump if you're going to make me come inside, stand in line (There is *always* a line inside too, as they've worked some kind of deal with the transit authority to put a bus stop in front of every one of their gas stations), and show ID just to get gas? Every other pump in the city requires a PIN number for debit cards or billing address ZIP code for credit cards. At Terrible's, you have to bring in more documents than you do while applying for a home equity loan.

So I won't go there anymore. I prefer Sinclair. But the problem with Sinclair is that their corporate policy, at least here in Southern Nevada, is that nobody getting gas on a credit/debit card is allowed to buy more than $50 at a time. Once I learned this several months ago, I'd always refill the tank before it got below the 1/4 mark. But this morning when I left the house, with all of the running around with Angy and all of the extra driving I've done this past week, the peg was down bouncing off the 'Empty' peg and the fuel warning light was on. So I figured I'd put in as much as I could and just top off sometime later this weekend.

One could only imagine my surprise as the pump stopped at $49.30, and the tank wouldn't hold another drop.

On top of all that, now that I live south of the 215, I find myself using the freeway all the time--even to get to and from work. And instead of my usual 13 mpg that the truck has gotten since I brought her home a year ago, I'm now averaging close to 16.5 mpg. Oh hell yeah--I haven't seen that kind of mileage since I took that road trip to Phoenix.

Perhaps it's time for another...

Mikey