Don't know about landing at the gas station, but we used to land in McDonalds parking lot (B-206) and on the lawns of various motels when flying cross country. That was back a few years before the U.S. military got hard=core about doing things like that. I think most larger cities (in the U.S. anyway) probably have some kind of "helicopter landing ordinance" specifying approved areas, etc.... Smaller towns??? I doubt it. I worked for a small operator in the GOM for a short period. We used to park the helo on a home-made pad in the backyard of the house. The neighbors didn't seem to mind.