I always try and wait to fill up in Salina ! Love that new Maverik !!!!
Me too but what I really like about Salina is 4 major suppliers at the I-70 exit. (Chevron, Loves, TA, and Maverik) Then add a Sinclair a block to the north and another Sinclair, Chevron, Exxon and an Independent with in a block of the downtown intersection. Plus two more on the west side, as your leaving town going toward Richfield on Highway 118.
That 11 stations in a town of 2500 people. 7 of those stations have been in business for over 30 years. The completions is brisk and demonstrates a healthy demonstration of how free enterprise works when it’s allowed to function as designed. Even applies to the evil and profit driven petroleum industry.
There is a unique component to the Salina fuel prices and amount of fuel business.
Salina is approximately 210 miles from Fruita/GrandJunction Colorado, on I-70. I-70 begins in Baltimore MD and ends at I-15 50 miles west of Salina, which continues on to Los Angles by way of Las Vegas. It carry traffic from coast to coast right through the center of the nation. Las Vegas is 300 miles west of Salina.
There is one caveat that might be an annomoly for any other freeway in the country, to go with the fuel situation in Salina. There is mountain pass that starts up, a mile east town. For the next 110 miles, there is not another electric light. Nothing but snow capped mountains and deep barren desert canyons. No gas, diesel or jerky. Nothing but a few beef cows, wild burrows and a occasional mustang. Elk or two if your lucky.
The typical traveler don’t like to run on less than a 1/4 tank, and the back, legs and bladder all need attention after 3 to 5 hours. With that gap of a 110 miles, with zero services, between Las Vegas and Grand Junction, and Salina being situated as the first fuel to be had when coming east and the last fuel to be had when going west……… it’s the natural stop for thousands of vehicles, public and commercial.
Richfield used to catch most travelers, (16 miles west of Salina, but in the last 10/15 years, Salina’s services have out paced Richfield’s when it come to service station options and definitely lower fuel prices.
When it was 4 or 5 cents cheaper in Salina than it was in Richfield nobody around here cared much but when it’s 50 to 60 cents a gallon cheaper, a lot of locals make a point of fueling there, when ever we are in the area anyway. When you can save 15 to 20 dollars a tank full or more if your a trucker, it’s well worth the inconvenience.