step 4 - do automobiles really need gas?

This is the story of the first 'setback' during the trip across country... running out of gas in the middle of South Dakota.

It was a beautiful mid-summers morning while traveling through the wonder that is South Dakota. Shawn Russel and I were in my car. Aaron Nash was in tow directly behind us in his car. About 2 hours after departing the hotel, I happened to notice a 'No Services for 83 miles' or something to that effect. I had filled up for gas when I first started for the morning, so in my mind there was no reason to stop until lunchtime. Okay, maybe a quick piss stop, but thats no big deal. Journey on! The sun was shining, I had some rockin tunes playing and I was rambling right along. Aaron and I were playing follow the leader via car tag... life was good. Was.

Then, the dreaded BEEEEEP.

I was afraid to look, as I had just bought this car in February and had yet to have ANY problems with it. It was now June and this was the first true road trip with this car. I was really really hoping that it was something small such as the washer fluid, as there are a ton of bugs when you drive 700+ miles a day. You can only imagine how often the windshield would require cleaning. But alas, its the gas light. I had a small sigh of relief, at least my car wasn't overheating or something worse (that had happened with my Jeep the previous summer). The relief passed almost as quickly as it rose, as it hit me like a ton of bricks that there were no services for god knows how long.


Yup... that's the gas light, notice the gas gauge is soon to be buried at E

As if things weren't already bad enough, I have no cell reception. I am now actually starting to panic. I rarely panic... but I also rarely am faced with running out of gas in the middle of a desert with no cell reception and nothing to speak of for miles. But wait, I have a saviour in the form of the buddy system. Aaron is right behind me... worst case, he goes and finds gas for me. But how do I tell him my situation without cell service.

Then I realize that Aaron has a talk-about radio in his car... guess who also has one. Shawn. We radio back to Nash our predicament. Shawn starts looking at a map to figure out where we are and how far it is to the next town. I convince Nash to get ahead of me, slow down to 50ish, and let me ride his bumper. He complies and I start drafting him... literally inches from his bumper. Normally, I would have taken a picture of this for documentation, but I was driving and actually having to legitimately pay attention. Shawn was freaking out cause the cars were so close, plus when he wasn't looking ahead, he was checking and re-checking our position on the map.

Shawn determines that we are about 20 miles from the next town. Aaron quickly radios back that this is true, as a sign just came into view that confirms Shawn's suspicion. Finally, good news. The problem is that I had been going now with the light on for probably 5-10 minutes (it felt like an eternity). I figured that I had about 30 miles out of my tank after the beep went off. I am going to be cutting this really close. Too close. Crap.

I draft Nash for some time and we finally get to the exit. New problem...there is NOTHING there. The exit ramp drops off of the highway and turns immediatly into a dirt road. There is no gas, no store, no civilization. Nothing. I radio to Aaron that we are just going to keep going, don't even waste the gas by slowing down to exit (and re-accelerate).


I am freaking out

The lump in my stomach just grew... exponentially. The next exit is 6 miles, the one after that is an additional 7. It appears that there is some more of nothing at the closest exit. But there is a sliver of hope at the exit 13 miles from me. There is an actual road that the interstate exits to. There is no road name or number, but at least there is a line on the map. That's a big deal for this area. We trudge on. I have no idea how long I have gone since the light turned on. I am waiting for everything in my car to just shut down.

We blow by the first exit, another dirt road. After what feels like a week, we finally see the signs to the next exit... the one with the actual road. Even better...I CAN SEE A GAS STATION. I am ecstatic. I almost rear end Nash, as my foot slammed on the gas in a spasm of joy at this discovery. Keep in mind that I have been drafting him this whole time as best I could. I make it off the entrance ramp, roll through the stop sign at about 30, pull into the nearest pump and shut the car down. I pop the gas tank switch, get out my credit card and meander to the pump. I actually pulled this one off, I have no idea how.

Just when I thought I was out of the clear, there is yet another problem. Oh my goodness, I just want this ordeal to be over. The gas pump is out of order. Okay, no big deal, I will just pull to the next one. Thankfully, it was working, as Nash was filling up. Almost in the clear. He finishes pumping (a thank you) and I go to turn my car on to pull ahead. No dice...my car won't start. It is completely out of gas.

Wow...I got lucky.

I finally fill the tank up, reset my trip meter and pull away. I also notice that the car took 15 gallons. That seemed really high, I had never put more than 12 in before this instance. I ask Shawn to check the owner's manual to see the size of my tank. We determine that my tank is only 14 gallons in size. Awesome!

Wow... I got lucky.


Hurrayyyy!!! A full tank.