Happy Holiday: Gas Prices Edition

Underbelly's Kansas correspondent weighs in with some perspective on gas prices:

A trip to the grocery store in western Kansas is becoming a major expedition. Most of the county seats are at least 20 miles from any spot in the county. Many of the county seats have practically nothing in them. Assuming a gas mileage of 20 miles per gallon (which is high for the big pickup trucks they favor out there), a minimum trip to the store for food has a base cost of about $9 – a gallon of gas plus a bit each way. Those are mighty expensive cigarettes if you run into town for a beer and a package of cigarettes.

...By "western Kansas," I assume he means this place, with a median family income of $34,859.