Re: Gas Prices

Take at Lone Pine:



http://yosemitephotos.net/main.php?g2_itemId=7490

Took this photo in April 2007, can't imagine what the prices are in Baker this year! (Chevron and Shell are easy to pick on)

This was Lone Pine. The Piute station in Bishop was $3.50 for regular and a few of the other stations came close to that if you paid cash.

I wonder what they're charging in Bridgeport...

Last summer I drove from Carson City to TM and figured I'd run my tank down and gas up in Bridgeport. $4.40 I put in enough to get me to the 120 junction and put a little more in there. It was at around $4+ at that station. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bridgeport hit $5.00 or more this summer.



Post Edited (03-23-08 17:57)

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Old Dude

Last summer I headed off to Sequoia and Kings Canyon after my Yosemite trip. I filled up once at Stony Creek, near my campground. I remember prominent Chevron stations at every major lodging area when I visited as a kid, but now they're no longer public stations and are only used for the official park vehicles or completely decommissioned. I probably should have gotten more gas along the way (plenty near Lemon Cove) to Visalia, or in Visalia itself, but I somehow didn't.

When I got back, I was about to fill up again at the Stony Creek gas station (about $3.70/gallon for premium) when I looked at the map and saw there was gas available at Hume Lake and then at Kings Canyon Lodge (in Sequoia NF).

I checked the generic gas station at the Hume Lake Christian Camp, and it was about $4 for mid-grade (no premium which I need for my turbocharged engine). I decided against it. Then I got to Kings Canyon Lodge, where they had a 6 gallon minimum, full-service only for $30 (for the six gallons). They were also filled from 1920's vintage glass-vial gravity feed pumps. I passed, drove all the way to Roads End, and ended up driving to Fresno for dinner. The low fuel light went on somewhere on CA-180, and I probably had about a gallon left as I pulled into a Valero station in Fresno. In the end I thought maybe I would have been better off just getting the six gallons while taking pictures of my car being filled by gravity feed.

I'm guessing their prices have gone up.

It all still seems very cheap to those who pay more-normal prices in the rest of the developed world. It starts to bring home the true cost of the profligate purchase of some massive SUV. Perhaps when it gets to $7 or $8/gallon we'll finally get smarter Stateside on transportation.

The picture I posted yesterday was the gas station in El Portal. The trucks can't use Highway 140 (28' length limit) and that's probably why the price is so high there. We paid $3.79 in Oakhurst.

swede42 wrote:
> It all still seems very cheap to those who pay more-normal
> prices in the rest of the developed world. It starts to bring
> home the true cost of the profligate purchase of some massive
> SUV. Perhaps when it gets to $7 or $8/gallon we'll finally get
> smarter Stateside on transportation.

I've been saying that since it went toward $3, and there does seem to be some lessening of people hauling their kid to school in an 8000 lb. behemoth. But there's a long way to go, and the most obstinate ones...the big pickup/suv tailgating you at 70mph...don't seem to care what it costs. It would be nice if they could price the gas according to what mileage your car gets; say $8 per gallon for those 8-10mpg folks, and down to $3 or so for the 35-40mpg cars. Probably not possible to implement though.

I don't think the tax is much of an issue. Oil companies are pretty smart, and they have us so dependent on their product they can say "jump" and all we can do is ask "how high?"

I think Europe is way ahead of us in that respect. Americans need to quit thinking their ego is represented by what they drive, and start thinking of a vehicle as a way to get from one place to the other. The stupid ads on TV don't help, but that's what got people into SUV''s and trucks they don't need anyway.

So the government was stupid, the auto manufacturers quickly took advantage, the consumer was dumb enough to go for it, and the oil companies, being no fools, are giving us what we asked for.

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Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo

swede42 is misguided. A more normal price? You mean it's more normal that government takes a huge cut, and for what? Americans never will buy into higher gas taxes. Watch out for a big tax revolt real soon.

Sierrafan, who are YOU to say which car I should drive?

Vince, I'm trying to figure out where I said that, did you mean you thought the "truck/suv they don't need" part meant that I was telling you what to drive? I wasn't telling anybody what to drive, but I meant those other people didn't need it, not you or me. There's plenty of fuel for us to drive around in the vehicles we so richly deserve, I ain't about to drive no sissy car; it's the other people that's the problem, they should be more responsible by conserving fuel so there will be enough, and getting out of our way. If the government would quit taxing our fuel, we could get bigger trucks and drive even faster for the same price and quit wasting time.



Post Edited (04-27-08 17:09)

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Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo

I live in the Netherlands, prices for a gallon equal $9,60 to $10,00 over here. So I am happy to pay only $4/4,50 when I come to visit next month