Gas stations irk me

I've been in Mississippi for a week now visiting my folks. I am frustrated because I wish I was in a position to do more for them. They need things. Dad needs a tire on his truck. Mom needs work on her car because it's leaking water from somewhere. They need a new lawn mower. Mom could use help with house keeping. It would be great if a house keeper could come in once a month to help her. Don't get me wrong. My mom is a great home maker and her house is clean and orderly. But it takes a toll on her with everything that needs to be done and nursing daddy too. She could use a break every now and then as she has her own health issues. So that's what frustrates me.

I checked the ads in the Tupelo Daily Journal. There's nothing in there for anything of my skills that pays as well as Driven2WIN. But I figured I'd at least have a look to see.

The trip up here from Florida wasn't too bad. I got rained on most of the way. Scattered showers, some heavy, some light. So I was constantly messing with the windshield wipers.

I've decided that a lot of the newer gas stations bug me. Have you noticed that the new designs are different? The older stations have the gas islands parallel to the building. But a lot of the newer designs have the gas islands perpendicular to the building. This is fine for cars....but it's very RV unfriendly. Usually there's not enough room to pull in facing the building and then make the sharp turn required to effect the U-turn to get out.

Here's what happened to me in Alabama....

Between Atlanta and Birmingham I needed gas. I usually try to stop at a Flying J or a Pilot or a TA Travel Center because since they cater to trucks, they usually have more maneuvering room for us RVers. So I'm getting down to 3/8ths of a tank and I'm looking for one of the three. I see a TA Travel Center and it's a Shell station. I have a Shell card so that's my goal. When I get there, they have a sign, <-- Trucks this way Cars this way -->

Am I a truck or a car? Well, the truck islands usually have only diesel so I decide I'm a car.

Big mistake.

The car islands are one of those idiotic deisgns where you have to pull straight in and there definitely is NOT enough room to make the U-turn to get out. So I creep down through the parking lot of cars looking for a way out. Nope. It's a dead end. The only way out is to make a SHARP left turn back toward the gas islands. Not getting out that way. There is a road with arrows pointing toward me. I ask a passing worker if I can go the wrong way up that small road to get to the truck parking lot on the back side of the building. Sure as long as there are no cars coming out he says. MO-RON! Dummy me figured he knew what he was talking about but nooooo. The reason why it was a one way road is because it's the EXIT FOR THE ARBY'S DRIVE THROUGH! DOH! So now I'm stuck. I hop out and disconnected the truck in record time (about 45 seconds). Then I have to back up the truck to the back of the parking lot. Then I stow the towbar so I don't drag the cables and back the RV up to the truck. It took me about two minutes to get them hooked up again and get out of that dinky parking lot. That deal alone made it *almost* worth the thousands of dollars I spent on the towbar setup.

I have never seen a TA Travel Center where you couldn't go all the way around the building. The parking lot made a "C". While I was hooking my truck back up, another guy walked past and I asked him if there was any gas at the truck islands and he said no. There was only the pumps in front of the building. He told me for the record that a lot of RVers have done just what I did and had to disconnect to back up. Seems like they would put up a sign saying something to the effect of <--Trucks and RVs this way (diesel only) Cars this way--> NO gas RVs allowed

I finally get back on the interstate and try the next exit as there is another Shell station there. Same thing. Straight-in pump islands. Criminitly. I go a mile and a half down the road and there are no other gas stations that I have cards for (Shell, Citgo, BP).

So it's on to the next exit. There is a BP station but again, the islands are perpendicular to the building. BUT this station has diesel islands in the back so you can go all the way around the building and I see that if I get close to the building on the way out, I can pull up to the far outside island.

Finally, I can get some fuel. This kind of crap is very annoying when you are toward the end of your trip and you're tired and you just want to get to your destination.

I wanted to make it all the way home but it was getting just too late. So I stopped at a Wal-Mart on the other side of Birmingham in Jasper and spent the night there with about six semi's. Must be a popular rest stop for them.

And one more thing. What is the point of stations limiting the amount of fuel you can get? What's up with that? These $75 and $100 limits make no sense. So that irks me too.

Now that's I've vented, I feel better.