MPG challenge

One of our little cats (Maddie) and I are sitting on the back deck this Memorial Day morning. I'm drinking coffee and reading the paper while she's watching birds, laying in the morning sun. It is a beautiful morning.

Of course the paper is full of stories about gas prices as people head out on their holiday trips. So far, high gas prices have not hurt our budget, we just moved $$ around a little. We are fortunate in that in February 2007 I bought a little Mazda Protege5, trading in my big F150 pickup truck. I do not drive to work each day so again I'm fortunate in that aspect but we do use the Mazda to go on our little weekend trips to the mountains. I went by the gas station Saturday morning and spent nearly $50 for a fill-up. The poor guy next to me was filling up his monster SUV when I arrived and was still filling it up when I finished as well. I am sure he spent nearly $100. As a result of higher prices I decided to try what is called 'hyper-mileage' driving. My little car has a 5 speed so I can coast down hills, drive slower, not accelerate so fast, etc and really improve mpg. My last tank, 100% city driving, averaged 34 mpg. It is amazing how much of a difference you can make just by paying attention to your driving style. I had been averaging around 30 previously.

I would like to say I was psychic and saw this coming but... I DID!!! Living in Houston for 25 years and working for an oil & gas company like I did for many years makes you pay attention to what is happening out there. I do not see the price going down anytime soon but my gut tells me we are near the top (for now). Supply and demand (plus speculation) has caused this problem and there is nothing the government can do about it right now. Raising taxes on the oil companies is 'brilliant'... like that will lower prices!? We should have started drilling in the US 10 years ago.