Pumping gas in Oregon - Medford - TravBuddy

Being a lifelong Florida native/resident, last summer's cross-country drive from Florida to Spokane, WA for my son's national wheelchair competition was an experience.

After Spokane, we wanted to see St. Helens and Ranier, but a rockslide in White Pass forced us south into Oregon to come up through Portland. I stopped for gas and at first I thought I was going to be mugged until I realized the kid worked for the station.

It took him a good five minutes of convincing me to let him pump my gas, because I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that a whole state would not be able to pump their own gas. And the LINES! Commercial truckers must hate driving through OR.

It's a beautiful state, but good grief. I'm glad we were just following the river for a little ways to get back to I-5 and head north into WA again. That would have driven me nuts to have someone always pumping my gas for me.

Apparently NJ also has the same law. Since apparently the other 48 states do just fine pumping their own gas, there must be something else going on. Don't understand what it is though.

Being from California I was not ready for what I found in Oregon. I pulled in to a gas station that looked just like the self-serve stations of California. But when I got out to pump my own gas a young gentleman stopped me and informed me that in Oregon state law requires that an employee must be the person to pump the gas into any vehicle. He didn’t wash my windows or offer to check my oil or the air in my tires. He was just there to put the nozzle into your car and start the pump and then remove it when the pump shut off. Talk about a boring job. As I have since learned, there are more than one state with this kind of law, New Jersey being another.