$4.65 per gallon

I’ve never seen a more perfect mixture of belligerence and despair than that expressed by this sign, and really by the whole gas station — it also had a brightly painted fountain filled with faux-greek statuary and no water, surrounded by No Trespassing signs every three or four feet.

The lady running the cash register was really interested in the fact that I was driving around America looking at Big Things, and chatted with me about it for quite a while. She was of the opinion that I shouldn’t bother with the desert, though, because there’s nothing interesting there.