Just an update - most of the companies I wrote to haven't responded. The few that did have a canned response along the lines of "thanks for writing us, your input is important, we will respond sometime in the next decade if this is urgent" or something similar.
Obviously I wasn't expected them to immediately write back a personal note explaining that they expect to have a system setup this week for accepting crypto currency, but I did want to reply back to the thread with an update.
To some degree this is like a squeeky wheel - the more people inquire, the higher on their list it will be to address.
Yeah I haven't been getting very many quick replies What I have posted here is what I have gotten still waiting on most companies
The gas companies just said that gas stations are independently owned and that it is up to the owner So I suggest teaching local gas station clerks about bitpay whenever you are there and maybe putting bitcoin stickers on pumps so that other people think that the gas station already accepts it and go in ready to use them After like 4 incidents like that the station will just start accepting them