Don't know how many of you are aware of GasBuddy.com. No, it's not a live webcam feed of teh Baba lighting farts after a bean burrito dinner. It's a site--actually a series of sites--that track gas prices across the USA! Basically people sign in and report gas prices they've seen recently, and it all goes into a BIG Honkin' database, and you can browse it to see where the lowest prices are. Until now, I'd only used StLouisGasPrices.com, which in part of Gas Buddy.com, for local prices, and it has helped. But I went to GasBuddy.com to see about getting info for my upcoming vacation trip (16 hrs drive time, both ways), and they have a GREAT setup for doing just that. Once you're into the website, click on Map Gas Prices, and it'll give you a scrolling, zoom-able map of the country, showing gas prices by color (green = low, yellow = higher, red = really high). Best part is that if you can estimate your fuel economy and generally determine your vehicle's range, you get a general idea of where you'll need to fill up next. Then you can go there on the map, zoom in, and find pointers to recently reported gas prices. With a little searching, it's easy to see differences up to 10-15 cents/gallon. For example, I'll be need to fill up a little before Nashville. A little research clued me in to the fact that despite generally higher gas prices in Kentucky, it'd be cheapest to fill up at one of the stations of I-24 near the Army base, just before the Tennessee border. Wait until Nashville and it'll cost me 9-10 cents/gallon more. And while a dime a gallon won't make anyone rich, why spend it if ya don't have to? So if anyone is planning a road trip in the near future, I encourage them to make use of this nifty feature at GasBuddy.com!
