Mike Morin

I’m older, I’m wiser and I’m making peace. In recent years, I’ve not only made peace with cilantro, I go out of my way to eat foods that incorporate it. It no longer tastes like Dial soap to me.

Same goes for my car’s cruise control function and I think you know why. Until I can get solar panels for my car, I’ll be stuck buying gasoline for my ride’s internal combustion engine.

I’ve decided to stop wagging my blame finger at world leaders and start doing something about it. And that’s why I made peace recently with cruise control. In the past, I couldn’t be bothered until one day my SUV drank $66 worth of gas.

I needed some support from friends and other drivers and here you will read their gas saving tips. For me, by increasing my car’s miles per gallon figure by just 15%, I figure I’m effectively knocking 70-cents off each gallon I pump into my car at today’s outrageous prices.

Alright, who’s spent way too much time on the DW Highway at the BJs gas station? Lisa is a BJs member and has joined the fill-up conga line.

“Is it worth it,” I asked?

“Actually it is,” she confessed. “It’s saved me 40-cents a gallon.” Meanwhile, my friend Mike of Nashua does as well.

“We pulled in to the line at BJ’s this morning for gas; the sign said $4.09. By the time we got to the pump, the price was $4.19! And yes, we always use cruise control.” Ouch!

Many of you are old enough to remember the Arab oil embargo from the 1970s. BJs did not invent long gas lines. They just brought them back into vogue as Susan from Salem recalls.

“I remember once in the 70s, still in high school, I put 56-cents worth of gas in the car. That’s all we could scrounge up on the floor of my car, but it was enough to get us to the beach and back.” Today, that 56-cents is barely enough to get you to pump #5 for more petro. Paul uses NASCAR techniques to save on gas.

“Tucked in behind a tractor trailer on the highway for about 40 miles and my mpg gauge went from a 20-mpg average to 26-mpg for the 40 miles.” I heard from proud Prius hybrid owners, who shoved 45-mpg figures in my face while many of you coast while driving downhill to save, like David from Merrimack.

“I thought I was a 16-year old genius. The third time I did it my muffler blew apart.” Perhaps a bit smarter is my Aussie friend Annie who told me, “Down here in Australia, it’s over $2 per liter [which is] $8+ per gallon. I’m getting fit, riding my bike.” Vermont buddy suggests we use hypermiling techniques as he does in the Green Mountain state. Then there’s Denise’s suggestion:

“My son told me that he found gas today for $1.99. I asked where? He said, ‘at Taco Bell!'”

Contact Mike Morin at mike morinmedia@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @MikeMorinMedia. His column runs the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month.