Hot Days, Cheaper Gas

The temperatures are over 105 every day.  It may have hit 110 or 111 degrees (F) yesterday with projected averages for the coming week to hover around highs of 107 degrees.  There is zero change of precipitation, i.e., no rain in sight.  The prickly pear pads are puckering for lack of water. 

For those of you who have never experienced a Southwest Desert summer, let me tell you that you can get used to the heat.  If I have an outdoor project that engages me, I tend to keep working into the heat of the day.  Yes, one sweats.  That is the body's way of cooling itself.  We are human;  we adapt.

In unrelated news, the price of gas is going down.  I saw $3.29 per gallon of regular unleaded, but the station was closed, so I could not fill the tank.  This is the lowest price I have seen in quite a while.  What is the price of gasoline where you live? 

In Bridgeport, Connecticut you can buy gas for $4 per gallon.  Drive over to Hartford and you can get gas for $3.85.  The $4 per gallon price is also available in Santa Barbara, Chicago, and Anchorage.  In New York, San Francisco, and Honolulu you can purchase a gallon for $3.95, more or less.  If you New Yorkers drive over to New Jersey, state gas prices average $3.59 per gallon.  Texas averages $3.48.  Drive down to South Carolina, and gas averages $3.33 per gallon.  Want to get more miles per gallon on the highway?  Drive at a maximum speed of 55mph (miles per hour) and you will maximize your fuel efficiency.  Speeds above 55mph reduce fuel efficiency.

Hope that helps your budget.  Stay cool.
I AM enjoying the pleasant 79 degree morning at 4:30AM.
Your Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

Got Gas?

A big howdy to all you cowboys, cowgirls, city slickers, dude ranch dudes and dudettes, desert rats, yuppies, and hippy wannabees.  A few days ago I heard in the mass mediums, i.e., radio and TV, that Tucson has the cheapest gas prices in the US at $3.41 a gallon.  Well, the mass media got it wrong again.  I drove around Tucson and easily found several places where gas was, and still is, $3.39 a gallon.  I got gas at $3.379 per gallon at one of those big, membership, discount warehouse places with a name like Costlo.
A quick online search of gas prices in Honolulu within the last 36 hours reveals that the cheapest price per gallon there is $4.23.  On the island of Kauai the cheapest gas on the Kuhio Highway is $4.439 per gallon.
If you want to snowboard instead of surf, the cheapest gas on Highway 82, Aspen, Colorado is $4.099.  If you get your gas on Main Street, Aspen, the cheapest (is that a word anyone uses in Aspen?) gas is $4.269 per gallon.  A few blocks up Main Street you can pay $4.459 for a gallon of regular grade gasoline. 

So folks, if you want cheap gas, and you don't need to be near ocean or extreme high country, you know where it is:  the southwest desert, where the livin' is cheap and the skies are not cloudy all day.  Happy trails.