The first and last gas price post - I promise

Brave me. A wallet warrior, I wasn't going to let some slight petroleum price hikes spoil my summer! But with a tank of gas hovering around the $70 range and a friend in Fort Worth to visit nearly every weekend, I soon felt the pinch at the pump and had to pinch the pennies back. Gas saving gimmicks became my best friends. I tried the slow fill-up, the buy gas at some ungodly hour when the gas is denser, the hose flip trick, the don't let your tank dwindle to less than half secret, and the throw 'er into neutral to coast down a hill or to a stop at a light scheme. So which ones work and which are, pardon the pun, pipe dreams? According to my old man, the engineer there is about a half a cup of gasoline lurking in the hose after a fill-up, so if you get the previous guy's half cup and your half cup, you're 1 cup o'unleaded in the black my friend. Black gold, that is. Is dragging ass out of bed at 4 AM to indulge in denser gas worth the trip and leaving the sack? No, but if you're out at any unusual hour, especially if it's colder than during the day, you might consider giving your car a drink. I do find that shifting into neutral now and again can actually help the car accelerate or decelerate naturally, but watch your speed. You don't want to have to explain your gas saving experiment to a cop, nor do you want to risk missing the next light cycle because a bunch of jerks pass you in your quest to save some dough and the environment. Pops says putting the nozzle's auto-fill clip on the lowest setting is bogus and does nothing to improve gas mileage. Short of trading my car in for a hybrid, I'll just learn to drive less, this'll help: www.walkscore.com.