When traveling Interstate 40, if your car uses high-octane gasoline, you need to fill up in Oklahoma (westbound) or New Mexico (eastbound) close to the Texas border, because you can't get high-octane gasoline in Texas.
What's up with that? You can drive from one station to another to another, and the highest octane on offer is 90. Granted, Texas is a big place, and I'm only talking about the Panhandle here, but this problem actually prevents me from taking trips into Texas because I don't know if I'll be able to fuel up if I go far enough that I can't escape on one tank of gas. I'm willing to accept that maybe they just don't want my kind there, with those fancy high-compression engines, but aren't there better ways to keep out the riff-raff?
Last year, I forgot the “fill up before the state line” rule, and ended up in Amarillo with less than a gallon of gas left, driving from one station to another looking for that one magic place that might have 91 or higher. Finally I ended up putting in six gallons of 90, figuring that would be enough to get me to New Mexico, and figuring that the engine's computer is supposed to be able to change the timing to compensate. Not much later, the turbocharger blew a hose.
Online, I looked for a convenient Audi dealership, and the best bet was Albuquerque. The car ran fine with no turbocharger, just very, very slowly, so I limped off to Albuquerque and walked into the only Audi dealer within a 250 mile radius with no appointment, and these wonderful people fixed my car in an hour.
It's not likely that I'll ever again forget to fuel up before crossing into Texas. But it's also not likely that I'll ever venture too far into Texas, until I'm driving something that doesn't need high-octane gasoline.
borger (45 mi ne of amarillo) has 91 at toot n totum and fritch (10 mi west of borger) has 92 at alsups
Posted by: tj | 15 March 2010 at 04:33 AM