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Gorda: Land of $5 gas

If you have the bad luck of running low here, get ready to pay dearly
By Jesse McKinley

HOW ELSE COULD YOU SPEND THAT $5?

For the cost of one gallon of gas from the station in Gorda, you could spend your money in all these other ways:

• Buy a gallon of milk. It’s better for you, and you’d probably have a buck left over.

• Stuff your face with an entire meal’s worth of items from the McDonald’s

dollar menu. That’s not better for you, but at least you might be more satisfied afterward.

• Rent a movie. If you used one of those nifty supermarket kiosks, you could rent three and still have some change for candy.

• Go to the Atascadero zoo. Lemurs are cute.

• Park your car. Even three hours in downtown SLO is less, and you won’t need to buy more gas!

James Willman seems to be a nice enough guy: polite, good-humored and hard-working, pumping gas seven days a week at the Amerigo Gas Station in the tiny Big Sur town of Gorda, about 35 miles north of Cambria.

But at least once a day, Willman said, someone pulls in and starts cursing him.

“They say all kinds of stuff—‘You ought to be shot,’ or ‘Where’s your mask?’ â€