Tank 274 - 11 April 2K11

Here's the 4-1-1 on 4/11:

431.0 miles, 11.981 gallons, 35.97 mpg, $45.52.

That's the second-highest amount ever paid for a tank of gas in this car ($46.36, 22 July 2008), and the eighth-most gallons of gas ever put in (12.451 gallons, 29 June 2K10).

The gas pump at the eccentric Wawa this morning was slow and shut off at about 11.6 gallons. This would have given me much better mileage, but my habit is to continue fueling until the pump shuts off a second time. Since it was a slow pump, I suspect the first shutoff came later than it normally would have.

Or else it probably had been the two horrendous traffic trips willed with stops and starts that happened on this tank...

Meanwhile, this morning was one of those bad traffic days. I felt extremely low on gas while stuck in traffic, although on paper I was confident I would not run out of gas, in real life it is a stressful situation. So on a long, long downhill in bumper to bumper traffic, I shut off the engine and coasted.

The motor was off for no lie about 5 minutes. It was great. However, the hat behind me apparently felt the need to accelerate swiftly whilst going down the hill to catch up to stopped traffic at the red light at the bottom.

The djoyhead beeped his little imported horn at me because there was a gap of perhaps 75 feet that had grown between me and the car ahead.

Forget the fact that we all were going at a walking pace, and it was obvious there was a red light ahead, the guy clearly felt that this gap was unacceptable and it was beneath him and unnecessarily delaying his progress to have such a vast open expanse of road in front of the car ahead of him.

So I heard the guy's timid beep and waved back to him as I merrily coasted on down the hill. And guess what? I caught up with that car and had to come to a full stop anyway.

So what gains would I have achieved by gassing it up to catch the stopped traffic ahead of me. Like the wimpy imported horn guy felt I was compelled to do? NONE!