Posted on 03/15/2008 2:15:57 PM PDT by kellynla
James Willman seems to be a nice enough guy: polite, good-humored and hard-working, pumping gas seven days a week at the Amerigo Gas Station in the tiny Big Sur town of Gorda, about 35 miles north of Cambria. But at least once a day, Willman said, someone pulls in and starts cursing him.
They say all kinds of stuffYou ought to be shot, or Wheres your mask? Willman said. Im like, Hey, I just work here.
The reason for consumer hostility is that the station is serving up what might be the costliest gas in the land.
This week, as crude oil flirted with $110 a barrel and gasoline prices surged nationwide, a gallon of regular at Amerigo was going for $5.20.
Premium was fetching an eye-popping $5.40 a gallon, though Willman said that included a free copy of a local newspaper. (The newspaper was free anyway.)
Thats the reason I walk to work, said Willman, who lives about 50 feet up a hill from the station.
The pain, of course, was not confined to Gorda, a one-generator, one-llama town perched on scenic Highway 1.
The American Automobile Association reported Tuesday that the average price of a gallon of gas nationwide had reached $3.23. Thats hovering around record prices even when adjusted for inflation.
Both the national high and the $3.71-a-gallon AAA-calculated average for San Luis Obispo County are still far short of Gordas exceptionally high prices.
Its even higher than the inflation- adjusted record for California, where gas prices have historically been higher than the national average.
Californias average price peaked at $1.90 a gallon in March 1981, according to the U. S. Department of Energy.
That would be the equivalent of $4.50 a gallon in to-days dollars, based on the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, the most common inflation measure.
Eye-popping prices
Many potential customers here slow down to the pump, and then keep on rolling when they see the price.
At least Don Lister, visiting from South Carolina, came in for a cup of coffee. He wanted to put in $10 worth of gas less than two gallons but his wife vetoed the purchase.
Wow, Lister said. Im not in South Carolina anymore.
The station manager, Leo Flores, said the price reflected this towns remote location as well as its reliance on a diesel generator for all of its power.
That generator uses 100 gallons a day, and the gas station helps foot the bill. Flores said a gallon of regular at his station actually topped $5 for the first time in late 2007 More holiday cheer, Willman cracked as crude prices began to surge. It has stayed put since.
Everyone else goes up and down, he said. I stay the same.
That consistency was not much comfort to Nathan Jacobsen, 27, a computer scientist from Brazil spending his honeymoon in California.
How much? he asked. Do I get anything free for that price? Willman handed him a newspaper.
Such interactions have led to a kind of gallows or perhaps gallons humor between Willman and the stations two other attendants, who serve the public and deal with their displeasure.
They say that paper towels to clean windshields come at $35 a foot, and that they want to install slot-machine arms on the sides of the pumps. They keep copies of particularly large receipts such as those for RVs as mementos.
One attendant, Nick Osborn, 59, said that a customer who said he was a judge from New York threatened him recently with a class-action lawsuit.
He took pictures and everything, Osborn said.
The high cost of isolation
Gordawhere the population ranges from about 10 during low season for tourists to about three dozen in midsummer is also home to a general store, a diner and a pair of pay phones. Cell phone reception is nonexistent, and radio is a crapshoot.
Locals have gotten used to paying a lot for a little, as almost everything has to be trucked in.
A 12-pack of Budweiser costs nearly $15, and a small coffee at the general store is more expensive than at your average Starbucks.
Youre paying for the view, said Brian Boyer, another of the towns wisecracking gas jockeys. And the entertainment.
And Gorda is not alone in pricey gas along the coast.
In Cambria, regular gas at the Chevron station was $3.95 on Thursday.
In Big Sur, the tourist hideaway 40 miles north, a gallon of regular went for $4.80 at one Shell station Tuesday.
Management at the Amerigo station is not immune to the price pinch. Tuesday was trash day, and Flores had to fill up the towns garbage truck to make the trip to the dump. The bill was $123.
Still, Willman, 47 and single, said he was holding out hope that Gordas notorious prices would have a silver lining.
I keep waiting for some single, rich woman to come through and drive me away, he said.
The high cost of living in California ping
People make California unlivable and then move to other states. Then they try to make that state into another freaking California!
Liberalism - spreading misery equally, everywhere.
But...but...the air is so much cleaner now...
Let’em whine. Gas has been over 7$ here since last spring. California deserves every bit of bad fortune that comes it’s way.
No shortages. Everything is fine.
Too GD bad. These are the same people responsible for the problem. What a bunch of ignorant butt heads.
America: land of stupid chumps, who let Arabs treat us like prison bitches.
I’ve eaten at the restaurant there, but never gassed up there. If your tank is flat empty, you can always take a splash of 2 gallons and keep going... The question is, are we seeing a taste of the future, gas at $5?
Any of you ever been to Gorda? It’s absolutely nowhere. Perched over the Pacific with mountains behind it. One way in and one way out. That’s it. It’s a long way to get there and long way to get out. If you want something cheap, you’d better bring it with you.
Imagine driving a fuel tanker down Highway 1. It’s probably a good 8 hour round trip just to drop of a few thousand gallons.
The best thing about Gorda is the sign on the general store door: No Hippies Allowed.
It’s been awhile. Don’t know if it’s still there...I hope so.
well as we all know, there haven’t been any new refineries built in 30 years although the existing refineries have been expanding capacity over the years but unless & until we start expanding our drilling, things don’t appear to be getting any better anytime soon...
just think, in January 1999 the price of crude was less than $10 bucks a barrel!
When a case of beer in 1970 went from $2.00 to $2.25, that was a taste of the future.
just a sign of things to come...
they’re already bumping up against the 4 dollar mark in many cities in CA
and McCain told Sean Hannity this week that he was against drilling in ANWR...makes me all warm & fuzzy inside...doesn’t it you? LOL
Five dollar gas is okay with me, free markets are free markets, and laws are laws. But why in the hell, are there at least 12 MILLION ILLEGAL invaders in this country?
“But why in the hell, are there at least 12 MILLION ILLEGAL invaders in this country?”
They’re “just doing jobs that Americans won’t do.” LOL
Sen Stevens and Sen Murkowski have introduced a bill to make drilling permits and leases in ANWR automatic when oil hits $125 for five days running. We are saved!
Hey - I love it! and I live here! Don’t worry, when we have $4 gas, Gorda will have $7 gas.
I think I’m gonna drive down to Gorda just to gas up. Shouldn’t take more than a day and a half.
And I’ll see if that sign is still there...
“Sen Stevens and Sen Murkowski have introduced a bill to make drilling permits and leases in ANWR automatic when oil hits $125 for five days running. We are saved!”
Should have come ten years ago when the price doubled and hit $20!
And “thackney” might have some info for you that might not concur with your thinking that we are “saved” by such a bill. LOL
I am not thinking we will be saved by this. Sen Stevens seems to be thinking this, but I believe he ought to retire.
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