Some people learn the hard way

As I say ‘don’t try this at home”, I really mean it because of course, I did try it. This time it was just myself and my son, who was eight at the time.  We were making the same trip from Ohio to Virginia.  It was somewhat later in the day, however,bordering on night.  And to avoid an hour long backup on the turnpike, I decided to take a new way, which had me on a relatively new highway about eleven thirty at night.

Here I am, a theoretically responsible  parent, driving down an unfamiliar road, late in the evening with my young son.  I did happen to notice that the gas tank seemed to be rapidly emptying (I think it goes from a quarter tank to zero much more quickly than it takes to traverse any of the other quarters on the dial).  So I was faced with the same dilemma most parents face every day.  Do I stop the car NOW and wake my child up – which could prompt anything from just drowsiness, to pleas for candy, ice cream, a drink and the bathroom.  You can see that in this instance waking the child is not a preferred option.

I made the only sensible choice and that was to drive a little longer.  And a little longer and yet more.  At this time it is now midnight and I am on a ‘new to me’ highway where it is very, very dark.  And as I tried to find a gas station, I realized that this highway is not the turnpike where there are rest stops and gas stations open all night long. This is just a road.  And I am going down this road after midnight on a Sunday.  I start to take exits where it says ‘gas’ and learned that there are not many gas stations open in the middle of the Midwest after midnight on a Sunday.  And, no, you can’t just put in your credit card and buy gas by yourself as you can during the day; I tried.  So each time I would get back on the highway, I’d go to the next exit and then try to determine if I should take the risk to look for gas.  If I did find an open gas station, my troubles would be over and I would move back over the good parent side again. However, if the gas station was closed, I would have used up more of the precious fuel.

Now for some reason while all of this was going through my head, I wasn’t panicking. Really and truly I thought everything would be okay.  And then, there it was – five miles across the state line – in big neon letters, ‘Truck Stop’.  I took the exit, and just like my father,cruised down the off ramp until I was about 50 yards from my goal.  My son was up by this time, asking why the car was stopped in the middle of the road. I told him it was just resting and turned the key.  Sure enough, the car had been sitting just right so more gas went to the part of the tank that fed the engine and we were going forward.  We got to the gas station, and thankfully filled up.  I didn’t even mind that all of the pumps except high test were locked up.  True to form, we then got our water, a restroom break and ice cream.  And all of this seemed like a dream.  But it really happened to me. And I sincerely thank whoever was watching over me and my child that night.