Dumbest thing I've done in a long time!

[KyDan]

We returned home one week ago today from our longest
vacation yet. We traveled across parts of IN, IL, MO, KS
to Colorado. We circled around from Colorado to Utah to
Arizona and back to Colorado.
I told my wife we were going to see every park with "Canyon" in the name and we darned near did!
We were gone 33 days and traveled about 4700 miles.

On our return trip on July 4th we spent the night in the Walmart
Super center in Garden City KS.
We arrived in Garden City with the gas gauge below 1/4
and we were road weary after driving 480 miles from
the far side of Durango.
It was supper time so we walked across the highway to
an Applebees for supper. It was spitting rain with
some distant lightning as we trotted back to our trailer.
The neighborhood was just getting started with their
back yard fireworks displays when a thunder storm rolled
into town. It poured rain briefly and the wind blew hard.
Our trailer- which was still hitched- rocked like a boat.
We did not have our jacks down because we'd planned
to get an early start the next morning.

I laid in bed and wondered how strong a wind it would take
to roll our little 4000 LB trailer over. Fatigue finally put
me to sleep in spite of the fireworks, man made and otherwise.
We were awakened early just at first light
by another thunderstorm and more pounding rain.
After coffee and a brief clean up inside the rain let up outside
so I trotted over to Wally World for some dough nuts.
As soon as we'd had our sugar blast we fired up and
pulled out. We were heading NE on KS hwy 156.
The hwy ran in front of the WalMart so we simply turned
left out of the parking lot and were back crossing the Kansas
plains in just a minute or 2.
It was still raining and there was a medium cross wind
so I was concentrating on the road and watching for
water ponding in the tire tracks.
The highway is a pretty decent 2 lane with good pavement
and not many bumps. In spite of the rain and wind we
were booking along about 60.
This is Kansas! You could see the road disappear in the
far distance- many miles away. Few trees on the horizon,
no houses, no barns, not even a grain elevator did we see.
It's LONELY on a road like that. The weather made it
feel even lonelier. The clouds were leaden gray with
occasional lightning and rain showers.
We had no cell signal but that was to be expected.
We met 2 or 3 cars in a half hour.
None behind or in front of us.

Suddenly my truck chime dinged 4 times.
I looked at the dash to see what was up and to our horror
we both saw the LOW GAS light shining and the needle
down on the E. WE FORGOT TO GAS UP IN GARDEN CITY.
OMG!!!!
My heart fell to the pit of my stomach. My mind was racing.
I quickly ruled out going back.
Not enough gas to get all the way back, no place to turn
around anyway. To make matters worse we didn't even
have a Kansas road map, just a "trip tick" of our route
I'd printed using Google maps. I had no idea how far it was to the
next town.
The next 20 miles were the longest and loneliest we've ever
driven.

We began scanning the horizon for a town--
ANY town. Mile after desolate, deserted mile nothing.
We watched the odometer tick off the miles and I was
purely guessing we'd get maybe 20 miles out of the 2 gallons
or so that I hoped were in the tank. Finally, after
20 long minutes we spotted a grain elevator on the horizon.
Slowly the trees and houses began to materialize.
A TOWN!! We're saved maybe-- we had no idea if it even
had a gas station. Just as we reached the first cross street
and the "reduce speed" sign the truck died suddenly.
I arm wrestled the steering wheel (dead engine, dead
power steering) and coasted us into a side street.
I got out in the drizzling rain and emptied my little 1 gallon
generator gas can into the tank.
With a prayer it was enough- I hit the key and it started
right up. As we were turning around a man from across
the street backed out and I flagged him down. He told
us "yes" there is a gas station up ahead! It was a block
off the highway but we found it and I was never so glad
to gas up as this time!! I filled the tank and my little
gas can and thanked the nice lady behind the counter.
She probably wondered about the strange man with the huge
grin on his face!

Wow- what a relief!!
I'm going to add "check gas tank" to my
"pulling out" check list!

We drove 544 miles that day to a great RV park called
Lazy Day's RV park in Montgomery City MO.
It was those 20 miles after the low gas warning that
were by far the longest of our entire trip!

[rvron]

You share a fear that I have - running out of gas. Or just as bad, pulling into a "tight" gas station. Last year I bought a GPS and thanks to my teenage son, showed me how to find gas stations (and everything else) along the route. It's not perfect but still awefully good. Thanks for sharing your story.

[powerboatr]

wow
that made my heart race reading to see if you made it...

[cfsoistman]

Glad to hear you weren't stranded out on the highway. Years ago we rented a Winnebago Leshare and travelled to New York. It was a diesel. Fuel gauge read 1/4 tank so we figured we'd stop at the next exit. Well we didn't make it that far. Actually ran out about 1 mile from an exit so I walked up to the Gas Station at the end of the ramp. They didn't have Diesel, neither did the other station across from them. Thank goodness there was a Catapillar Dealership there. They couldn't sell me any fuel but he gave me 5 gallons and had one of their workers drive me back to the RV. Carrying 5 gallons for 1 mile on a 90 degree day would have been terrible. Well we got back and needed a funnel. Thank God for beer drinking litterbugs. Found one long neck Budweiser bottle, broke the bottom off and instant funnel. We were only on the shoulder of Rte 90 for about an hour but it felt like a week. I learned to never get near 1/4 tank no matter what I'm driving because the next back up may be me not being able to get off the road.

[slpybeartx]

Great post... enjoyed reading it and do understand the fear you can have with low fuel!

My rule of thumb is, once we are below half a tank, If I see a great looking gas station for me to pull into... go right ahead!

[BENTE]

wow what a story. when i read the topic i started thinking of the dumbest thing i have done so far. we don't go far enough from home to worry about gas but i have done the some stupid stuff. we went to a new campground to us and after we had stayed the weekend we hooked the tt up. well there was some problem with the hook up so i let the toung jack down to fix whatever problem i had. put the thing back down on the ball locked the hitch then did my idiot check walk around. everything looked fine so i jumped in and started to pull off. well i heard this grinding sound for about twenty feet. i looked at my wife said "that does not sound right" got out looked i had not let the toung jack all the way up and there was a 20 foot line in the dirt off the site pad..


long story short i make two trips around the camper now

[jeepsailor]

Great story, I get gas the 1/2 way point when traveling so I hope not to repeat that.

[The_Stuff]

almost had that happen in Minneapolis mn. got off the interstate but no gas stations around..

[Herk7769]

Trying to find Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel at a gas station that will take a 12 foot high camper can be a real challenge. I always carry 2 5 gallon cans for use in an emergency. Needed to use them several times already.

[camprat]

I had the same thing happen to me. My first trip back East with my f-350 PS, NO spare fuel can (DUMMY) . Missed my turn off & low fuel light. We went 20 mile the light change to a alarm. Made another 32 mile & when we made it to the pump. It was sucking the filter dry. Now I have 60 gal. fuel tank in back & loving it.

[52Dodgeman]

Reminds me of a lesson I learned many, many years ago. My wife, our 6 week old daughter, our black lab and I were on our way to lake Pillsbury in Northern CA. It was raining and getting dark when we finally neared the Lake. As we had never been there before I had to make a decision to go right or left at a Y in the road. The sign pointed to Lake Pillsbury in both directions. At this time my Dodge van was low on gas. I decided to go to the right. We drove what seemed like hours and the gas gauge neared empty. Visions of stalling out on a two lane road in the middle of nowhere, in the dark with no gas available and a new baby in the van had me sweating bullets (note this was before cell phones). Just about the time the old van was about ready to quit we rounded a corner and there in the mist was the glow from a single Shell gas pump at a little store. I did not care what the cost of the gas was and I was so excited that I almost hugged the guy that ran the place. Later I found that if I would have gone left at the Y the campground was about a half mile down the road. For many years after that I carried a 5 gallon gas can with us when we went on the road. To this day I will not let my gas gauge get past ¼ without filling up.

[wayne1]

"Exit Now" is a great book we bought as we travel the interstates. Shows where the stations are by exit numbers, and more importantly, the "RV friendly" stations which DO NOT have tight turns to get into or out of the station....
Of course, they also list the travel plazas, food RV dump and the such...

[RhoZeta]

KyDan, if you are not a pro writer you should be! For you to be able to take something as innocuous and mundane (obviously not to you at the time) as almost running out of gas in the middle of nowhere and being stuck into a page turner that I read twice just to take in the scene that you vividly painted with your prose is amazing! You have a real talent there and I hope you are
putting it to good use.

[acadianbob]

Sounds like we have ALL done it!! For me it was the distraction of listening to an audio book across wyoming; not a place with frequent stops. Yep, the chime! Panic! Where are we? Where is the next town? Reduced the speed, coasted down the hills, we made it but just barely. Like you, all I had was the 1 gallon gas can for the Honda generator . . . . Sometimes you get lucky.

[FreeWheeler]

Great story... I wonder if anyone would like to volunteer their "Pulling Out Checklist" to a newbie. I have been building my own a little at a time but I'm sure seasoned haulers will have things I haven't even imagined. We will be pulling a 5th and our maiden voyage will be probably late March when we get above freezing here in MD.

[caper]

In Oct. we were heading to BC from Ont. I had almost 3/4 tank of gas at Sault Saint Marie and dicided to get gas at the next town. Unkown to me the next town was over 250 k away, 30 K from Wawa my low gas display came on. I did not want to run out of gas and pulled into a construction area. Pulled out the cell phone to call CAA and no service. Had to walk 500m and climb a high bank to get one bar. Called CAA and had gas in 45min. Now keep a 5gal can. The driver from Caa said that they receive many calls for not gas,even motorcycles. I will get gas in Wawa on the way home.

[skidoonut]

i live in sault ste. marie and if you are towing i would never leave sault ste. marie without filling up prior to going up to wawa. there are lots of very large hills but it is a beautiful scenic drive along the shore of superior. if you are ever in the soo and need help let me know. i also work as a mechanic at the local gm dealer.

[caper]

I now know that when in the Sault you get gas now matter how much is in the tank. There is a gas station at Montreal River. The entrance is on a steep hill and the the entrace is marked with a handmade sign about 1 foot by 1 foot. By the time i saw the sign it was too late to stop. The CAA driver also informed me that the owner of the service station is opened when he feels like it. If it is a nice day and the business is slow he shuts down and goes fishing. Because he is opened the gas stations in the Sault and Wawa cannot say they are the last gas for a x number of miles.

[Oakman]

That was a great story in really well written, thanks for sharing. Although we’ve never run out of gas, we had a close call on a tour of the Southwest a few years back. Back then gas was at an all time high and some gas stations would actually run out of fuel before they received another delivery.
At that time my truck was a 2002 Dodge with an 8 liter, V10 gas engine. When towing the fifth wheel I would only get 5.5 to 6.5 MPG. You can burn a lot of fuel quickly at 6.0 MPG. On this trip I had driven farther than I normally do without filling up, but I knew that a gas station was just 10 miles ahead. Surprise, that station was out of fuel and the next services were 30 miles farther down the highway. I was pretty sure I had enough gas to get there but I didn’t want to chance it. There was one other gas station just down the road but it had a 10 foot canopy over the pumps. We ended up unhitching from the fifth wheel and I left it and my wife behind at one station while I drove the truck to the other station with the low canopy and filled up.
There are three valuable tools I have with me whenever we travel with our fifth wheel, a GPS, a Woodall’s Campground Directory, and the book called The Next Exit.

[tncruiser]

Now keep a 5gal can. The driver from Caa said that they receive many calls for not gas,even motorcycles. I will get gas in Wawa on the way home.
__________________
Terry and Janet
2008 3001W Windjammer


how many litres might that be
terry you wrote in great canandien
then
fomer cdn
brianj