A Good Year for the Outlaw

Billy, Billy, Billy – are you trying to say you educated me?  First of all, if you think for one second the price will go down when they open up new oil fields, your world is more Pollyannaish than mine!

And since my car has an onboard computer to tell me my gas mileage, along with me double checking it every time I fill up, I can say factually that my mileage is 24.6 MPG when I average exactly the speed limit, and 24.6 when I average 70. I’ve done this on a cross country trip, with cruise control, 400 miles on a tank, fill up, check it, 400 more miles, fill up, check it again. WIND CONDITIONS and ELEVATION CHANGES affect my mileage more than my driving speed.

Besides, the WORST mileage anyone ever gets is driving in town, where the speed limits are 35 and below, because of the stopping, starting, idling at a stop light, etc.  I average about 15 MPG when I use most of my tank in town. Don’t get on highway drivers and speeders for wasting gas. Get on the lazy asses who could walk a block to the Casey’s instead of taking their SUV and letting it idle while they spend 75 cents pumping up that obnoxiously oversized left rear tire that has a slow leak because they were out drinkin’ beer and “muddin’” last Saturday night.

Also, regarding “the market sets the price”. No, Charlie McDonald and Terry Beachler set the price. We just have to pay it if we want to get to work. For the market to have enough of an effect to make these guys lower their prices, we’d all have to quit driving ANYWHERE for a month, and empty the streets except for bikes. And that ain’t gonna happen. Not when you’ve gotta use the Expedition to carry home the 12-pack of Bud from the convenience store.

BTW, regarding air…the chain of Beck’s convenience stores, based in Princeton, refuses to install an air machine that charges money, they still offer it free of charge at every store, and the local manager here in Kewanee says the goodwill and extra business they get from that free air hose more than offsets the cost of keeping up the air compressor and the cost of the electricity it uses. He averages over a dozen unsolicited compliments a WEEK for having free air. Our conversation about it started when I stopped to put air in a bike tire, and went inside thank him for it, all the while spending ten bucks in his store on snack items and soda. Imagine that impact in a city the size of Peoria.

And if you REALLY want to talk about rip-offs, let’s add bottled water to the gas and air discussion.