[EChas3]

I completely forgot to comment on South Dakota fuels! Rapid City is well into the foothills (3,247') so you typically find 85 Octane regular unleaded. It is undiluted with ethanol and averaged $2.699 for most of our visit. 87 Octane E10 (10% ethanol) must benefit from SD price supports because it averaged $0.10 cheaper. Premium unleaded (91 Octane) was $2.899 or higher. (For those interested, E85 was widely available at $2.10.) At lower elevations, the grades of unleaded were 87, 89 & 93 with similar forumlations and pricing as previously described. We predominently used Sinclair gas and had no trouble.

The few times we filled up with the lower octane high-elevation formulations, they worked well. When returning to lower elevations performance seemed OK. (When finished in the hills, I did top off with Premium for an octane boost; probably unneccessary.) We didn't see any advantage in spending more for E0 so most of the trip was run on the cheaper E10. The stock Northstar ran typically great with quiet and effortless power.

For the first time I encountered E30 gas formulations at tempting prices ($2.299 per gallon). Manufacturers of all kinds of engines warn against using these blends. We hear a lot of this in Wisconsin where many outboards, snowmobiles and other outdoor power equipment suffers from modern fuels. It was a good opportunity to caution my wife to always be alert to the type of fuel to put in her STS and what to do if a mistake happens. (As more outlets are pressured to offer experimental blends, consumers need to be wary. Only Flex Fuel vehicles should ever use blends greater than E10.)

In Pierre, we actually encountered a full service station! The price was competitive and they washed all the glass. The $0.05 cash discount was another surprise. I'm surprised people would go anywhere else!