Only when it fits the narrative. Two quarters in a row was the standard until the current clown was elected(?). Cheap data but what I came up with in .02 seconds. New Mexico must be a lovely state with fantastic policies to see it's citizens prosper. Near the top of the list for the poorest states in America.

Top 10 Poorest States in the U.S. | Friends Committee On National Legislation (fcnl.org)

BTW, diesel here is still well over $5 bucks a gallon.

Cheers!

 

Where is this going?

 

Just got back from a 1,537 mile trip that took us to Northern Idaho back down to some of the most remote areas in the lower 48. Beautiful too! St. Joe river 30 miles east of Avery, Idaho. Down to highway 12 from Lewistown, Idaho to Lolo, Montana. Caught some nice cutties for over a week and a half. Didn't care about fuel prices however I think the highest we paid was $5.99 and got 13.8mpg.

Cheers~

 

Here in San Diego diesel for the last 4 months was at $6.17. About a week ago it dropped back down to $5.65.
How F...ed up is that Im happy it's under $6. Our trip across country last April I paid about $4.79 average for the 6k mile trip. It was at least a buck cheaper everywhere we went compared to home.

Frikka just filled up down the street and price jumped to $5.69.

 

We took a trip out west to Utah in early July. Gas started out at 4.89 in my home state of Minnesota and got progressively higher as we went west. Paid as much as much as 5.29. And what is the deal with the cheaper 85 octane out there? 87 octane is the lowest here.

 

The need for higher octane decreases with altitude.

 

E85? E85 is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Cheaper, but mileage is less and owner’s manual says not to use it exclusively, if that is what you had. We don’t have it in Tennessee, but have found it in Missouri.

 

Higher elevation areas have the lower octane choices at the pump. As the altitude gets higher, air gets thinner, so cylinder pressures are lower, so less detonation control is needed at the same respective timing position. EXCEPT: turbocharged engines, they make up for most of that automatically. I believe the manuals of all turbocharged Fords say to use 87 or higher.

 

+1 on a good explanation of octane requirements.
86 at the pump for $3.09 here in NM at 4500 ft. diesel is $3.99.

 

LOL
And inflation is at zero percent.
And Afghanistan was an overwhelming success.
And the last election was ....

A fool and his brain are easily parted.

Fuel here is still around $5, bounces around a bit but hasn't really gotten cheaper.

 

We filled up yesterday for $3.35 for regular and just back from the beach. It was as low as $3.19 outside of Chattanooga, but we also saw prices as high as $3.79 off the Interstate.

 

$4.679 is the cheapest in my area at a couple of stations. The rest are running $4.799 to $4.899. One a little farther away is at $4.739.

A sampling of 19 Stations withing 35 miles, most are around 20 miles, of me that have their prices posted shows a $5.8697333333333333 p/gal average. Low is $5.599 Cash Only to $6.099

 

Cheapest I can find Diesel in my neck of the woods (Bridgewater Ma) is 5.29 a gallon (cash). Man that's so cheap now compared to 6.49. I hated paying 1.99 a gallon 2 years ago! We have cancelled our September road trip with our old Lance down to Myrtle beach State park. Just can't afford the fuel.

 

We "rearranged" our summer travel to save fuel money. We will be going back down to Diamond Lake just in time to MISS Labor Day. We'll be down there in a High Cascade Mountains camp for probably 3 weeks or unitl the snow flies. The last several years the snow started flying just a couple of days before we were heading home anyway.
With sight seeing and "goofing off" in the mountains and at Crater Lake we'll probably put on around 1200 miles. Our Lance 1062 will be on the pickup and the boat being towed behind for about 435 to 500 miles depending on which route we take going and coming.
Right now I'm waiting to talk to the service manager at our camper dealership. We've been fighting with them on some warranty related repairs and finally got someplace with them. We took the F350 and camper over to them on the morning of July 28th to get the repairs made. They told us they would need it for 7 days. They still have it and we are running out of time for getting things prepped for the trip. They pulled this on us last January and had it for darn near 3 months. Not going to happen this time. He will be told we are picking it up this Friday or next Monday at the latest and it had darned well better be ready to go.

 

Gas prices have now fallen for 79 days in a row, national average per AAA is $3.81 (and projected to fall further into this fall) but still higher than $3.18 a year ago. Our local Valero is at $3.45 and I'm seeing as low as $3.15 in Albuquerque on GasBuddy. NM typically has lower gas prices than lots of places, likely because we are the 2nd largest state in crude oil production. Not why we moved here, but it's a nice side benefit. Looks like prices are similarly low across Texas, Oklahoma, the midwest, and most of the south.

Prices on the west coast are still much higher - LA average is $5.25, and diesel is still ignificantly higher as well. Sucks for anyone who owns a diesel and/or lives near the coast. And it makes it hard to see how owning a diesel is cost-effective anymore.

It's been interesting to see the various takes on this thread, and this will likely be my last time chiming in on this forum as we sold our truck and camper a few days ago. We owned it for about 18 months, spent about 70 nights in it, and sold the package for over $10K more than we paid for it. Not a bad return on a depreciating asset, especially when the stock market is down. Even taking into account what we spent on gas and insurance, we still came out ahead. Crazy times.

We had some great experiences with the truck camper, but we are moving on to new adventures, and won't miss the $100+ fillups and burning all that extra gas when the climate is at a tipping point and extreme weather events are on the rise throughout the world.

*Hopefully* by this time next year we will own a fully electric Rivian or F-150. And maybe eventually a small camper-trailer for local trips where the range hit won't be a deal-breaker. For longer trips we'll do more flying, and when we do drive it will be a combination of hotels, staying with friends, and tent camping. With solar on the roof at home we will be able to charge for free 90+% of the time and save close to $5000 per year in gas expenses.