What gas?

This was an eventful day. An hour or so after passing the test at customs, we switched drivers and Husband took over. The minute he got behind the wheel, that light came on. Husband prefers to call it the "Excuse Me, Sir It's High Time You Stopped For Gas" light. I call it the  “Hey Stupid, This Car Don’t Run On Love” light. We were 45 miles from Tok with NOTHING in between but hilly road and approaching twilight (it was after 10:00 p.m.). Car manual in hand, I read that after the light comes on you have 1.6 (really, that’s what it was, not 1, not 1.5, but 1.6) gallons left before the needle hits E. Then, you have a “small amount of gas left” before the tank runs out. Notice “small amount” is undefined.

This is a Honda Element towing a half loaded 8 ft. UHaul trailer. Usually, we get 21 MPG. Under the best of circumstances, we figured we’d be 15 miles short when we ran out of gas.

Now the creative juices started flowing. How to get to town after we ran out of gas? Strap on the roller blades and coast in? Pull over, sleep until morning and hitch in?

Meanwhile, Husband starts driving to conserve what we had. We coasted on hills and took advantage of the very last push before shifting into drive again. We rejoiced when we got back into cell phone range (four miles out of the town). At least we could now call for help. Another major obstacle overcome when we made it across the bridge and didn’t run out of gas smack in the middle of the two lane structure. We were on pins and needles as the lights from Tok became visible. We might make it? Where’s the gas station? Is it open? (it’s 11:00 p.m.). Look, a flashing arrow pointing to the 24 HOUR gas station! Big smiles and joyful faces from our car greeted the gas pumps. Fill ‘er up, God loves us and didn’t see fit to hit us with a difficult situation to deal with. Probably figured it would put me over the edge after the past two weeks.

How much did it take? 14. 91 gallons. Size of the gas tank? 15. 6 gallons. Heck, we had tons left! Our beloved Honda Element, towing trailer, two dogs, and the two of us clocked in at 19 MPG for that tank of gas that day. I consider that a modern day miracle.