Freelance assignments took me to Abilene and Austin the past couple of weekends, which meant driving more than 800 miles over a four-day period. This is worth noting not only because I don't drive much, but because it comes at a time when everyone is complaining about the high cost of driving.
A few thoughts culled from four days on the road:
• Gas prices were about a nickel higher than they are here, though on Saturday I found a Pilot station south of Waco that had regular unleaded at $3.439.
• Gas stations aren't taking any chances about getting stiffed. The Waco Pilot had a $75 limit on Visa and MasterCard purchases. If you needed more gas than that, you had to run the credit card through a second time. The limit at a Pilot in Weatherford was $50 for MasterCard and $75 for Visa.
• It almost goes without saying that I saw practically no RVs -- maybe a half dozen on a Friday and Sunday on I-20 to Abilene and back and not even that many on the trip to and from Austin. I was curious, so I looked it up: About the best you can hope for with the biggest RVs is 10 miles to the gallon, and they may have 150-gallon gas tanks. Talk about ouch.
• Are high gas prices keeping drivers off the road? There wasn't much traffic to and from Abilene. On the Sunday morning when I came home, I didn't see any cars headed east for an hour or so. But I don't drive that route often enough to know if that was unusual. On the other hand, there was the usual, mostly heavy traffic up and down I-35 -- so, apparently, $3.50 a gallon gas isn't deterring anyone from driving between here and Austin.
• It's also not deterring them from driving more fuel efficiently. I kept my cruise control at 72, and I got 25 mpg with my 2003 Honda Element. But I was passed regularly by the usual assortment of SUVs and pick-up trucks, weaving in and out of traffic doing what had to be at least 90. (Note to Texas Department of Public Safety: 72 on my cruise control was within the speed limit, according to the margin of error on my speedometer.)
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