Sodapalooza

This summer I caved in to RaceTrac’s summer soda promotion, and bought the plastic cup for $7.99. With it came free refills of soft drinks and frozen drinks from May to the end of July, as well as several coupons. A few summers ago I also bought in, but this year I did an even better job of stopping for refills. Most work days I stopped in both before and after work. The few times I went out to lunch I tried to plan my route to pass by for a refill. On weekends if my route took me past RaceTrac I would stop in. Most Sundays when I’d be coming back from taking Matthew downtown I would fill up.

I used the coupons for a free breakfast sandwich and a free hot dog. I also plan on using the BOGO Braves ticket coupon so I can collect more Tom Glavine bobbleheads. In all I figure I “saved” $92.00.

Though RaceTrac has several soft drinks to choose from, the diet selection is limited. I’m not that crazy about Diet Coke any more, and Coke Zero is just ok. Adding cherry or vanilla is an inexact science. Diet Mountain Dew is good, but I can do without the caffeine. That left another favorite: Diet Dr. Pepper. No problem with that. Wound up stopping in at least eight different RaceTracs.   

Another benefit was discovering a quicker route to work. Instead of turning onto two-lane Spaulding, where the lights at Peachtree Parkway and Peachtree Industrial are always red for an extended time, AND school traffic is bad due to Wesleyan and Norcross High – I continue east on Holcomb Bridge the PIB underpass…usually without stopping. Then the lights headed against traffic on northbound PIB are usually in my favor.   

Now I can go back to drinking the free Cokes at work.