DX Sold Gas at $1.35 per Gallon

Today's gas price around 42N country is $3.48 per gallon. Back in the day when DX stations flowed petro from her pumps the price per gallon was much cheaper.

In Oxford Junction, Iowa at the preserved DX gas station, two fuel pumps are still visible with pricing. The cost to fuel your vehicle before DX closed its doors was $1.35 per gallon - that is almost two-thirds less than today's price! 

Don't try to pump any old gas from these two pumps. Their handles have been removed - and besides there is no debit card swipe to activate the pump. Times have changed. Know that.

Yukon to Florida Via Oxford Junction, Iowa

A visitor to Oxford Junction, Iowa on Sunday, August 7th stopped briefly to look for a meal. I was in town to photograph more of the preserved DX gas station (just out of frame - see it here.) I didn't get his name but he is a recently retired physical education teacher who is bicycling from a small town in the Canadian Yukon, near Alaska to Sarasota, Florida. He has been on the road exactly two months and expects to be so for another month.

Oxford Junction, a very small town in eastern Iowa only had one place open for dinner on Sunday. That facility turned out to be a seniors center which unfortunately could not accommodate the international traveler. 

The man told me that it was no big deal about the lack of open restaurants. "I'll find one in the next town," he told me. His target for the day was Muscatine, Iowa which is on the Mississippi River. He told me that he is from Austria and will fly there once he gets to Florida. He thought this was a great way to start retirement. Can't argue with that. Know that.

DX Gas Station Still Exists in Midwest

A staple in 42N Midwestern towns for many years was the neighborhood DX gas station. In 1968 the company was bought by the Sun Oil Company (now called SUNOCO) and the DX name was slowly removed and replaced.

Driving through the countryside to take in Fall harvest scenes and above normal temperature, the 42N crew came to the town of Oxford Junction, Iowa (41.98N, 90.95W.) There, right on a Main Street corner, stands the DX station sign, vintage gas pumps and small service building - all preserved.

The odd thing about coming upon that DX station was the nearly automatic check off in the brain that says, yes this gas station belongs here. A split second later that the brain corrects itself with the notion that the scene shouldn't be there anymore. Its a museum or tribute now. Hmm, a sign of aging. Know that.