This is a photo from my vacation last week along the Northern California coast. The scenery was spectacular, the food was good and, as a bonus, I believe I found some news because along the way I stumbled upon what seems to be the most expensive gallon of gas in the country!
It happened on my way out of the town of Mendocino. I was a little low on gas but figured I might as well gas up on my way out of town. The gas station on Main Street looked, on first blush, like a legit station. This was not Joe's gas -- it was a Chevron station, proudly displaying the company logo. I pulled up to the tanks and noticed the office was closed but the pumps were self-service so who cares, right?
Turns out there's probably a reason for that closed office -- they were likely tired of hearing customer complaints! I ran my credit card through and chose regular but something caught my eye or rather nothing caught my eye. There were no posted prices for the gas. Now I am a spendthrift by nature but the lack of posted prices made my spidey senses tingle. I decided to take the receipt (which BTW I have on my office desk and will post a picture of it next week when I get back).
I took a look. I paid $47 and a bit of change for a little over 7 gallons of gas! And there on the posted receipt was the price at last -- $6.259 per gallon!! Even my "I'll-pay-$5-for-a-cup-of-coffee-without-batting-an-eye" jaw dropped. I had never heard of anyone anywhere paying even $6 for a gallon gas. I stuck the receipt in my pocket and began doing research when I got back.
Turns out, people on Yelp.com have been complaining about this particular Chevron station since November of 2012 when some poor schmuck (like moi) paid $6.20 per gallon for gas at this station. Now mind you, California does come in at number two as having the most expensive gas in the country in a recent story in USA Today that cites AAA statistics. But the average price per gallon cited by the story claims that $3.97 per gallon is about what you'll pay, not $6.25!
Hawaii has the highest gas prices in the country at $4.17 per gallon. No one anywhere apparently pays even $5 per gallon so I've got that beat by $1.25.
I've complained to Chevron over the phone and over Twitter and they are looking into it. But, while they conduct their crack investigation, I'm warning all of you out there on this July 4th weekend, be very afraid if you wander into Mendocino needing gas. Better stop for a mortgage first.