Is Your Music Career Running on Cheap Gas?

Originally published by Jedi Bret on the Small Barn site

Out in the county, where the gas stations are few and far between, I looked at the gas gauge, and sure enough the needle was right down there on the Empty peg. Typical…
My old Ford has been abused for a couple decades and she gets pretty noisy. Rattles and pings, valves clacking, and is that an exhaust leak or something worse? She keeps on going, though, so I give her a quart of oil every now and then and figure I’ll get her to the health clinic as soon as possible.
Now, I try to stick to No Ethanol fuel. If you think that stuff is good for your car, find a no-ethanol station, and switch for 2 weeks – I dare you. I’m also a firm believer in running higher octane fuel, especially in newer engines (ask the race pros).

Better fuel wins races.

So, there I was, out of gas, and looking forward to those out-in-the-county prices, when I see the sign at Summitville is marked only 4¢ higher than in town. Yay! I noticed one, hard to get to, pump that says 0% ethanol, and headed that way.

Are you using good fuel?

As I parked I saw it was 90 octane, an added bonus, even though it was another 4¢ more. I got $14 worth, (almost bought some fried chicken livers – gotta love country stores) and headed on my way.

Pulling onto the highway, the Bronco sounded and felt a little different. I played around with the accelerator, and noticed the pinging was gone, the stutter was a better, the noises that make one think, “is this thing going to make it?” were just not there.

I finished my chores for the day and headed back to the house. When I arrived home, there was still gas in the tank. I expected it to be empty, again, as it normally would be after that drive. But that wasn’t the case. Yesterday’s mileage on the good fuel had left me with enough to send the wife off to work today, knowing that she had enough gas to get through her day!