We drove the motorhome down to Yuma at Christmastime to spend some time with our good friends, the Quinns.
It’s now March 23rd (our 48th anniversary!), and the Yuma trip was finally concluded yesterday when I drove the RV back to Mesquite from Southern California. Hip, hip, hooray!!!
We had The Beast in drydock at Temecula Valley RV undergoing a bunch of repairs that took three months to accomplish. The main hold-up was the infamous “supply chain”: we had to wait for a new aluminum roof ladder, a slide motor, and a air pressure system manifold (that had to come from Ireland!). Mucho dinero later… everything seems to work, for now. Hip, hip, hooray!!!
Yesterday, I made the 400-mile milk run from So Calif to Mesquite, Nevada. A long, boring slog, to be sure. The winds were blowing about 50 mph below the Cajon Pass (near San Bernardino) and I was afraid the RV and my cojones were going to be blown off I-15. However, once I summited the Pass, the winds died down and I enjoyed maybe the nicest Vegas run that I’ve had in the past 30 years. Light traffic, not many 18-wheelers, only one accident delay… it was a beautiful day, albeit a long one. Hip, hip, hooray!
I decided to put fuel into the motorhome before I hit Barstow, so I stopped at the Love’s truck stop at Lenwood. Diesel was $6.24 per gallon. I had maybe one-third of a tank full, and probably could have made it home on what I had, but I always like to keep at least a half-tank of fuel (about 65 gallons) so I put in $400 worth, which worked out to 64 gallons.
Then, I motored up I-15 into Nevada. Just north of Vegas, I noticed the Love’s truck stop (at the Ely turnoff) advertising diesel fuel for $5.28 per gallon, almost one dollar per gallon cheaper than the Love’s near Barstow. Gee, had I been patient, I would have saved almost $64 on fuel.
Sure, I know that state tax on diesel fuel is 45 cents per gallon higher in California. But, where does the other 51 cents per gallon go?? Seems like a ripoff, especially since the same company (Love’s) is buying their wholesale fuel from the same vendor, at the same time, in the same country. That fuel is most likely being refined in San Pedro, California, which is closer (by several hundred miles on I-15) to the California Love’s than the Nevada Love’s. Fuel transportation cost for the Nevada Love’s has to be more: doesn’t make sense to me.
On the drive to California in my Jeep, I stopped in Jean, Nevada for gas. The price in Mesquite, Nevada (where we live) is around $5 for Regular 87 octane. The Chevron in Jean wanted $6.00 per gallon. I was offended and drove another dozen miles to Whiskey Pete’s Chevron station at the state line (Primm) on I-15. It’s an enormous gas station complex with at least 50 pumps. They raped me for $6.68 per gallon. That’s 68 cents per gallon more than their Chevron counterparts 12 miles north on I-15. Same State, same taxes, same company owner, etc.
Some moron had affixed one of those Joe Biden “I did this” decals to the price per gallon indicator on the Chevron pump. Very funny, except that no President controls the State tax on gasoline, no President controls the basic fuel cost at the pump, no President controls what the Big Oil cartels decide to charge for refined petroleum, and no President controls what a greedy station owner might charge for his gasoline. All of us (even Joe Biden) are at the mercy of Big Oil and the greedy gas station owners who can charge whatever they want for the product they are selling. Biden has no involvement in the greed that is occurring.
When I got home (still in Nevada), I was able to buy 87 octane Regular gasoline for $4.84 at Smiths. That is $1.84 per gallon less than in Primm (Nevada), only 100 miles south on I-15 from my house.
Ladies and Gentlemen: It’s called Free Enterprise, caveat emptor, “Let them eat cake”, Greed is Good, etc. If you don’t like it, you can live in Venezuela.
Venezuela, by the way, is an oil exporting nation like the United States. Unlike America, Venezuela long ago nationalized oil production… i.e. the government there is Big Oil… and the President/dictator is responsible for gas prices. In Venezuela, the current price per gallon for gasoline is 3 cents.
Sounds good, but the head of government there is President for Life (or until another dictator comes along to replace him). He’s a ruthless S.O.B.
We could have had one of those leaders in 2020 but Donald Trump had the election stolen from him.