Did you know there is a upgrade out for the ScanGauge? Version 4.02 was the first release with the updated menu system and performance monitoring and if you don’t have it you can upgrade for $25.00. http://www.scangauge.com/support/upgrade/

I use mine for water temperature, load, manifold pressure and miles per gallon. I love it when going down hill and the mpg shows 999999.

I am planning a major road trip – about 6,000 miles or so. I like the planning almost as much as going on the trip. With Microsoft Street and Trips it is pretty easy. I am going to figure out a way to keep that running while I drive along. Not up front but in the back somewhere. I actually would like it up front but between that, the smart phone, the zune, the gps, the scan gauge, the rear looking camera, pumpkin seeds, coffee, the dog – oh yes, and driving, it might just be a little too much.

But what I would like to see is an app to show me where all the Safeway fuel stops are ($.10 discount is good!) and where the VA clinics are (just in case the old blood pressure starts to go up.). I’ve got the Starbucks one, Gas Buddy, Rest Stops (although it is hopelessly out of date).

While I am thinking about it, I’d like an app that scrolled the words to songs as they play either on the smart phone or the zune so I could sing along karaoke style. Can you get a ticket for that?

Picture this . . . you are driving down the freeway and the fuel light comes on. That means (if you have a Sprinter) you have about 5 gallons of fuel left. You pull into the next stop and fill it up at $4.29 per gallon. Jumping back on the freeway you kept heading towards tonight’s camp site. At the next exit you see Diesel $3.89 per gallon. Darn. $6 bucks down the drain.

With the above app for your smart phone, this won’t happen to you. And the app is free which is pretty hard to beat. In the settings you can set to look for diesel only and since it knows where you are, it will give the prices by mileage.

Yesterday at the Shell diesel was $4.49.9 – highway robbery. I only took 5 gallons because I knew today I would be at the Safeway fuel stop where diesel, with my discount, was $4.05.9 – that is $8.80 still in my pocket.

You can’t afford not to have this app!

Oh, and a reminder. Don’t everystop at an Arco AM/PM. They add a $.45 transaction fee to every fuel purchase. What the heck is that all about?

There are all kind of excuses but the main factor is 40% of the people who got tickets didn’t pay them and there was nothing that could be done about it.

Lack of viable enforcement was one of the key reasons the program ended, council members said. Although more than 180,000 drivers were ticketed under the program, which began in 2004, a city-authorized audit found that up to just 60 percent of the tickets were paid. Apparently, the manner in which the photo-enforcement law was written made compliance a voluntary action.

Wow, voluntary. Good thing the laws on bank robbery aren’t like that. I wish they would end these cameras everywhere. I have an alarm on my GPS that goes off when I am near one and scares me to death.