This sign over here....

I have recently begun to do some traveling, always in the form of a road trip. What I have discovered is that there are a LOT of signs. Not all of the signs make sense to me. Some of them are funny. Some of them warrant the response, "duh." Some of them warrant the response, "doh." Some of them are serious, and may still elicit laughter, despite the utmost in serious demeanor. When you are out and about, snap a photo of the signs that make you go hmmmm..... then send them to me!

Here are a few fake signs that make me giggle. There are real signs out there that make me giggle too. What about you?

I see signs, EVERYWHERE

On our most recent roadtrip, I failed to read a sign. The outcome was, um, okay. Here in Oklahoma, we don't use a lot of "alternative" fuels as of yet. Or maybe we do. But the gas stations I frequent don't tend to offer alternative fuels. As such, I'm not positive what constitutes "alternative fuel."

The manufacturer of my car states that 87 octane is required. To me that means use 87 octane. However, recently, in Kentucky or Tennessee or somewhere like that, I HAD to get fuel. So I pulled over. I just glanced at the pump. The offerings were 85, 93 and 105 or something like that. The norm here in Oklahoma is 87, 89 and 91. So the number jumps had me completely baffled. Did I read further? No. I just went for the 85, thinking, hey, it will work for just one tank. Geez. After getting my tank nearly full, I finished reading the sign. I didn't think to take a picture, probably because I was more concerned about my car at the moment. But the sign for the one labeled "85" said it was 85% ETHANOL and that unless you had a FLEXFUEL vehicle, you should not be putting that in your car.

All because I opted NOT to read the sign. So I ran into the gas station to talk to the attendant and see if maybe, just maybe they had a hose I could purchase so I could siphon out this corn filled ethanol.... I waited in line, and then another person would come in and I would let them in front of me because I was not looking forward to telling the cashier what I had just done. Finally, I got up the nerve to announce to the cashier my dilemma. There was a guy standing there who had been chatting the cashiers up and he told me he was a mechanic and that the flex fuel I had so foolishly just put in my car would not make it explode. In fact, my car could actually RUN on it. But he did not recommend I do it again. He told me to top off the rest of the tank with the premium gasoline (in this case, the 93) and drive the car until it was at the halfway mark and top off the tank again with premium gasoline.

In short, my car seems fine. It ran fine, never a sputter. But evidently, ethanol is very corrosive and who knows what the long term holds. For now, I plan to read the signs.....