Ouch!

I bought my first $50 tank of gas today when I filled the tank on the Subaru at the Hilltop Kum & Go (yeah, I know) about noon.
Actually, it came to $50.01.
I'm sure several of my readers have already crossed this painful threshold, but today was a first for me. The sad thing is that I fully expect to see a $100 tank of gas eventually, and probably sooner than I'd like.
This means, of course, that I'll favor my 30 mpg Honda del Sol over the 24 mpg Subaru Forester, but when weather permits, I'll do my traveling on my 40 mpg BMW K1200GT or Maria's 49 mpg BMW K75S.
I ran an errand on Maria's bike yesterday morning and noticed the shifting was conspicuously notchy and I had to forceably stomp it down from fourth to third gear a couple of times. I mentioned the problem to one of the service technicians at Grass Roots BMW Motorcycles later that day and he opined I have a leaking transmission seal and the gears need oil.
So I checked the level this afternoon, found it nearly bone dry, and ran down to the nearby Advance Auto Parts store for a liter of 80W90 hypoid gear oil.
Naturally, Maria's bike's toolkit is missing the tool that serves as a dipstick for transmission oil and naturally my new bike doesn't come with one and naturally, I couldn't locate the tool kit from my old K100RS. So I just kinda eyeballed it, being guided by the owner's manual specs.
After adding the oil, I buttoned it up and went for a spin. Voila! Buttery smooth shifting.
So when Grass Roots opens on Tuesday, I'll call and book some service time to get the offending seal or seals replaced. So what if it's 145 miles to their shop? I'm looking forward to the ride.

The good old days

These were the prices at the Admiral station on Darlington Avenue in Crawfordsville, Ind. on Nov. 2, 2005.

And we thought those prices were outrageous!

Gas-saving tips that aren't really useful

This email has been making the rounds for a few months now, but it is doubtful that any of these tips will result in significant savings:

TIPS ON PUMPING GAS

I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon.

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel,and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon.In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.

A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3 )stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY.The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!

I view all emails like this with suspicion and turn to debunking sites like snopes.com to check their validity.

The short version is that underground tanks keep the fuel at a relatively constant temperature, so the ambient air temperature is pretty much meaningless when it comes to the density of the gasoline.

The cost in extra time spent only buying half-tanks of gas at a time may make the miniscule savings seem pointless.

Also, filters catch what little crud gets stirred up when tankers fill gas station underground tanks.

You can read the whole analysis here.

Got gas?

I can't drive past a gas station these days without checking the posted prices.
Maybe that's odd. Maria says she never looks.
Anyhow, I've started sharing the information with my fellow Arkansans (feels really weird to call myself that) by posting my observations on arkansasgasprices.com, a web site that lists the 15 stations in the state with the cheapest gasoline and the 15 that are charging the most.
I was on indianagasprices.com when I was in Indiana and was pleased to note that the Admiral station in Crawfordsville was on the low-price honor roll on a consistent basis.
The numbers in Jonesboro are decent, but not exceptionally good. That said, the $3.25/gallon price I noticed at a Conoco station here compares pretty well with the $3.33 being charged today by the MotoMart in Evansville, which happens to be the cheapest reported gas in Indiana.
I've noticed that Jonesboro gas prices are consistently lower that those in the Thorntown-Crawfordsville-Lebanon area. The average price of a gallon of regular today is $3.343 in Arkansas and $3.469 in Indiana.