Tank 245 - 21 July 2K10

I refueled today just before lunch at the 7-11 near where I work.
Sometimes I use the parking lot at this store as a cut-through bypass
around an exceptionally long red light on my way home. Instead of
waiting for the light in a long line of cars, I turn right, go about 30
feet, then turn left into this 7-11 and can cut through the parking lot
to exit and turn right to get back on the same road I was on, thus
bypassing all those suckers who wait.

So getting gas there, while perhaps a few pennies more per gallon, is a
fair price to pay for the convenience I sometimes wrench from its
parking lot.

Anyway, I went 415.3 miles and put in 11.309 gallons, making for fuel
economy of 36.72, which is okay, but I took this red car around town a
lot over this past weekend, with a lot of start/stop traffic.

Tank 244 - 13 July 2K10

Since the last tank, about 100 miles into this one, I replaced the spark
plugs and cleaned the air filter in the mighty Corolla. Since then, I
ended up going 456.2 miles (4th most for a tank ever!) and refueled this
morning at the Fredericksburg Wawa with 12.164 gallons of gas, making
for fuel economy of 37.50 mpg.

This is almost 9% better than my last tank's mileage, but probably the
improvement is not that dramatic, as I also was spending more time
trying to drive conservatively and coast more when I could.

So far this year, I have spent $781.39 on gasoline, and driven almost
11,000 miles. And July isn't even over yet.

I think traffic would flow more smoothly if, instead of posting signs
that said "left lane ends 1 mile merge right," the signs read "these two
lanes merge in 1 mile." Since nobody would know which lane would end,
each lane would be used until the merge point, and a "zipper merge"
could be more easily achieved.