Iowa gas stations with less costly fuel lure Illinois drivers

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By Kurt Allemeier | Thursday, November 20, 2008 4:45 AM CST | () comments

LeCLAIRE, Iowa — For some Illinois drivers, the Casey’s General Store here is a little bit out of the way home, but for others it is a pilgrimage to get gasoline at $1.79 per gallon, 20-30 cents cheaper than it is close to home.

Upriver from the Quad-Cities, past signs advertising gas for $1.99 a gallon or even $1.89 a gallon, the Casey’s price is something drivers only dreamed of in July. At one point Wednesday afternoon, five of the six cars lined up at the pump bore Illinois plates.

“It is $2.19 where I live in Colona,” Trudy White said as she filled her sport utility vehicle. “I hope the gas prices stay this way or go lower. I might be able to afford Christmas.”

The average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline in the Iowa Quad-Cities was $2 a gallon Wednesday, compared with $2.13 per gallon in the Illinois Quad-Cities, making the LeClaire station’s price a real bargain.

White said she checks a Web site that tracks gas prices and was pleasantly surprised to find gas at Casey’s cheaper than what was listed online.

Plummeting gas prices, down 67 cents per gallon in the last month in the Iowa Quad-Cities, is good economic news when there isn’t much to be found. The Labor Department said Wednesday that consumer prices fell by 1 percent last month, the biggest one-month decline on records that go back to February 1947. Gas prices were just one of the reasons.

For some, the cheaper price isn’t a money-saver if the trip is out of the way.

“My wife does that,” Bruce Ingram, of Port Byron, Ill., said. “My wife makes special trips — 15 miles there, 15 miles back — all the time. You are spending $8 to save $4.”

Ingram was on his way home from work and made the stop before crossing the river. He says his minivan gets pretty good gas mileage, so gas prices aren’t a big deal to him.

“I had a Lincoln Towncar where it made a big difference,” he said. “With this — not so much.”

Barney McIntyre, of Cordova, Ill., cleaned the windshield of his small SUV as he filled his tank. The convenience store is a little bit out of his way, but that doesn’t matter.

“I get all my gas here,” he said. “It is cheaper.”

A gas station was selling for $2.07 a gallon in Cordova, he said. Stopping in LeClaire isn’t out of the way, especially since his wife works in Davenport, where he was coming from.

“I wouldn’t drive out of my way to buy gas here,” he said.

Even so, it seems like people are driving out of their way to get bargain gas in LeClaire. Nancy Griggs, of Atkinson, Ill., was dropping off a friend when she stopped to get gas after an Alcoa retirees lunch at Red Lobster in Davenport.

“We always get gas when we are on this side of the river,” she said.

Kurt Allemeier can be contacted at (563) 383-2360 or kallemeier@qctimes.com.