Gas Stations

By Harry Bernstein

I recently went on a road trip with a friend of mine from New Jersey. We were gone for a week, and my friend would freeze each time we had to stop at gas stations. She had never pumped gas before, and was afraid she was going to have to do it. In New Jersey, all of the gas stations are full service. This means you never have to pump your own gas. I’m not sure why this is, but that must be great if you live there. Here in New York and nearby Pennsylvania, you can find full service gas stations, but most of them require you to pump your own gas.

At each of the gas stations, I would pump the gas, and give her a chuckle. I gave her a break because I remember when I first started driving. I was a bit intimidated by pumping gas, and by gas stations in general. Because we were on vacation, I saw no reason to stress her out by making her learn to do this. Towards the end of the trip, my friend got brave, and asked if she could try to pump the gas. Considering it was one of the few times she had attempted to do this, I thought she did rather well, even though she did give the pump a few dirty looks before she figured out what buttons she needed to push.

Gas Stations - Finding the Best & Filling Up With Gas

With the price of gas so high lately, we would drive by many gas stations before we stopped for gas. In most places, you will find that one station always has a better price than the rest; it’s just a matter of figuring out which one that is. This is hard if you don’t know the area, and aren’t willing to spend a lot of time searching. Sometimes you just have to stop at the closest station and fill up.

You can, however, find the best gas stations near your home by doing some searching online. There are quite a few web sites that report gas prices at each of the gas stations in their area. You can then look to find which station has the best price, and you can make it a point to go there. Most gas stations are pretty close in price, but there is a chance you might find substantial savings. In my case, I live near the New York/Pennsylvania border. By searching the local prices, I found that if I just filled up a little bit and drove into PA a few miles that I could then fill up the rest of the way at ten cents a gallon cheaper. Since I was going that way, I saved money. It never hurts to look.