Well since today will be a short run, about 230 miles, we didn’t have to get up at 4:00 AM for a change. We got up and ready to go and on the road just before noon.

There was still some wind but not nearly as bad as yesterday. We needed some gas and have seen some good gas prices. The lowest we had seen between our camp and Omaha was $2.13.

Today we see $1.98, we hit the brakes and turn into the gas station. It turns out the “gas” was ethanol. The other choices at this “gas” station where all some percent of ethanol. The only one that probably would not be a potential problem for the Jeep was the 10% and it was more expensive then the real regular gasoline across the street. We went across the street.

We have to be carful of ethanol. It could totally screw-up the 1995 motor home. And it is probably bad for the Jeep at some level.

A little ethanol rant:

As you get up into the Midwest there are a lot more ethanol products at the “gas” stations. They grow a lot of corn locally and you will see a lot of ethanol plants. You have to carefully check the labels on the pumps. There blends of 10%, 20%, 30% and 100% ethanol. Our Jeep is probably ok on a 10% blend, but a 10% blend could be bad for the old motor home. At some stations you can not get 100% gasoline. The best you can do is a 10% ethanol blend.

In April 2008 the German environmental minister cancelled a proposed 10% ethanol fuel scheme citing technical problems: too many older cars in Germany are unequipped to handle this fuel. Ethanol levels in fuel will remain at 5%.

The other problem is mileage. We went from 17 MPG on gasoline to 13MPG on 10% ethanol with the Jeep on this trip.

Using 100% ethanol fuel decreases fuel-economy by 15-30% over using 100% gasoline.

Ethanol is not the answer to the gasoline problem.

The consumption of ethanol to replace current U.S. petroleum use alone would require about 75% of all cultivated land on the face of the Earth, with no ethanol for other countries, or sufficient food for humans and animals.

Just something to think about…

And now back to the trip.

We got to Madison about 4:00 PM. We had time to get to the lawyer and get started on the South Dakota wills. He will have then ready for signatures tomorrow after we finish with the motor vehicle people.

It looks like pizza from the place next to the hotel for dinner tonight. I wonder if they have BBQ rib pizza.