A few weeks back while I was doing my grocery shopping I noticed that the Plaza Diner in New Paltz had blocked off part of their parking lot. They always have the most beautiful flowers growing in the island between their parking lot and the exit of the Tops Plaza. But this day they were missing which is probably the reason I even notice the fence up.

photos by PQ
photos by PQ
loading...

I was driving out and instead of the sun flowers which they typical have blooming this time of year I saw a fence and lots of big crates. It appeared they were digging up something so I figured some problem had occurred that they needed to fix. But it turns out I was wrong. It was not a problem at all. It was actually a cool new addition to stopping at the diner.

It took a few weeks for it to all come together but early on it became clear that they weren't digging up anything they were actually putting something in. The Plaza Diner is now home to the newest Tesla Charging Station in New Paltz. It was unbelievable how fast they went in. One day they were digging, the next day the charging boxes were there and now they have installed the stations.

I wondered how this all came together so I had to satisfy my curiosity. This past weekend while I was at the diner having breakfast I decide on my way out I would comment on the charging stations and ask how they got there. Turns out the answer was as simple. I was told the owner of the diner was approached by the company who puts them in, they offered to install them and the diner said yes.

Now if you drive an electric or a hybrid car in New Paltz you have a place to recharge your vehicle while you recharge with a cheese burger or whatever you'd like at the Plaza Diner.

The Tesla Addition at the Plaza Diner

It wasn't clear at first what they were doing at the Tops Plaza in New Paltz near the Plaza Diner. But this weekend things came into focus. For the last few weeks there has been some mysterious construction underway and now it is clear why.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

LOOK: See the iconic cars that debuted the year you were born

 

More From WZAD-WCZX The Wolf