Another Gas Post

As the owner of a SUV – a 2002 Nissan Xterra – and with my ailing father nearly 90 miles away in the Veterans' Home, I have become acutely aware of the price of gasoline. Throughout its life with me, most of the Xterra's driving was a combination of city and highway driving: the morning rush was almost always stop and go on the expressway, or on the surface streets in the city, until I got beyond the typical bottlenecks and into the suburbs where the cars thinned out and highway speeds were attainable. It was almost exactly a 50-50 split, roughly 12 miles of stop and go, and then roughly 12 miles of open highway, over which I routinely exceeded the speed limit. The range on a tank of gas averaged out to about 255 miles, which works out to roughly 16 miles per gallon.

Those numbers didn't change with my move to the suburbs and my commute being reduced to 3 miles each way. My driving habits were unchanged…hard accelerations, speeding, and eating food while talking on the phone while reading the newspaper while fixing my makeup…but I digress.

Ever since the national speed limit was reduced to 55 miles per hour back in the 1970s, partially as a forced effort to conserve energy, I have been skeptical about the numbers the government gave concerning fuel efficiency and simply slowing down, and I never cared enough to test the theory, especially when road-rage flared up and I was not about to let "that idiot" cut in front of me. But lately, since the amount of my highway driving has been significantly reduced, I've been driving at a more relaxed pace.

The day before my father's recent move to his new digs I had filled the Xterra's gas tank in preparation for the drive down to be on hand for the move. I had to hit the road early on a route that, as it turns out, is against the rush hour traffic, so I was able to maintain highway speeds for most of the trip. As I had allowed myself plenty of time to get there, I didn't bolt from traffic lights, I didn't try to jockey for position in traffic, I only ran the air conditioner while at highway speeds (shutting it off and opening the windows when I was at 40 mph and slower) and I never exceeded 60 mph the whole way down. There was perhaps a twinkle of thought about fuel savings, but it was mostly because I didn't feel rushed, so why rush?

After getting Dad settled in I did some exploring around the area of the cemetery where my maternal grandfather is buried (more on that later), and then I headed home, maintaining that same relaxed pace and keeping my speed to 60 mph or below. I was mildly shocked when I got home and noticed that I had put about 160 miles on the Xterra, but the gas gauge indicated that I had just above half a tank of gas left. I was on pace for 300 miles on one tank of gas! The rest of the driving on that tank was more "city" driving than anything else, so I probably got less than I could have, but all the same, when I felt it was time to fill up it was at 298.8 miles!! The math shows that the Xterra, on that tank-ful, achieved 18.8 miles per gallon. It sure doesn't sound like much more, compared to 16 miles per gallon, but it resulted in nearly 50 miles more than the six-year average!!

Hypermiling
It was only last week that I first heard the term "hypermiling", which refers to the use of certain techniques to get maximum mileage from a car, to exceed the federal EPA ratings for that particular model. Driving at slower speeds is only one of those techniques, some of which seem absolutely radical in comparison. But it certainly seems to have made a difference. Of course, I undid all that savings by going to the wrong gas station Friday afternoon. After passing the local Marathon station – a brand which is usually several cents lower per gallon than the Big Three oil companies – and their mid-grade fuel priced at $3.919 per gallon (I was trying to reach that symbolic 300 mile mark), I decided I had better fill up before I got on the highway on the way to my brother's house, and at 298.8 miles I stopped at another Marathon station, about 10 miles from my house…and paid $4.119 for mid-grade. TWENTY CENTS MORE! Boy! Did I feel stupid!

So the next time you have to drive somewhere, allow yourself a few extra minutes to get where you're going, employ whatever zen or meditative techniques it takes to find your calm center, and then drive serenely, taking care to ignore the assholes around you who seem to think that the morning commute is a race that must be won, and those who seem to think that intimidating other drivers makes them the kings or queens of the road. Accelerate smoothly, keep your speed at or below the posted limits, and get to where you're going safely.

You might squeeze a few extra dollars out of your tank.

Road Trip
One can imagine this is where my thoughts will be in July when I'm off on the road trip I'm planning. One of my nieces is getting married in Minnesota in the middle of July. I originally asked just for that weekend off from work, but after further thought I decided I would make a full-blown vacation out of that week, culminating in the wedding.

I was stationed in Montana for 16 months in 1984 and '85. Though I'm neither a hunter nor a fisherman, I really enjoyed my time there. Still, in the latter quarter of the 20th century, there was a frontier feeling there, with the lone prairie just a few minutes' drive out of the bigger cities (and the lone prairie IN the smaller cities!). So, to continue my big nostalgia trip, to follow up my recent return to Germany over the holidays, I will return to Great Falls, Montana, to see how much has changed there, and how much remains the same. I intend to make haste getting out there in order that I can spend the rest of my time moseying around all the haunts, perhaps cruising through the missile field that I once called my own, and then meandering across the plains through eastern Montana, with a possible visit to Themiddleoffuckingnowhere if Professor hasn't moved on from there by then. I'll continue to mosey, either through North Dakota, which I have never visited before, or through South Dakota, a drive through which I mostly slept through(!) back in 1984. I regrettably bypassed Mount Rushmore at that time, and I intend not to make that mistake again. Granted, it pales in comparison to Ultra Toast's adventure of a lifetime, but it pleases me to plan it, nonetheless.

Hopefully, with little other than highway miles on my trip, I will get a clearer understanding of the true range of the Xterra's gas tank. I know, in the grand scheme of life, that such information is trivial, but when you're driving through the vast, featureless expanses of the northern tier states, you need something to occupy your mind!