Looking like a local

Well, I had to come down to the big city ... El Caballero had picked up a nail in a tire. The limited-service spare wasn't suitable for the road between Five O'Clock Somewhere and the highway, or for the highway itself. I got a can of flat-repair stuff, but it wasn't suitable for highway speeds, and according to the label, it would have caused a whole lot of problems for whoever had to fix the tire later. So I had Pat bring up a new (but cheap), full-size tire and wheel. That allowed me to drive El Caballero to Albuquerque so I can get the punctured tire repaired, or more likely, buy new tires all around -- the old ones are pretty near worn out.

I stopped at a local place to fuel up, since my gas gauge was running low. As I was pumping my gas, it occurred to me that I really did look like a local -- I had a ten-year-old, cheap American car, very dirty, with a bit of body damage, and my tires didn't even match.

The other weird thing was that, at the level the fuel gauge had been at, in Albuquerque, it would have taken 12 gallons to fill the tank. Up north, it only took 10. When I made calculations based on the odometer mileage, El Caballero had been getting 35 miles per gallon. When I fuel the car in Albuquerque, even if coming right off a trip up north, I only get about 30. The best conclusion I can come to is that a gallon is bigger in Rio Arriba County than it is in Albuquerque.