Happy Halloween……. I guess.
Woke up around 11 today, much earlier than expected since I beat my alarm for 12:00 in the afternoon. Josh, Matt and I arrived back in the Lou after 5, a mere 4 hour drive compared to the 5 hour drive getting to Chicago. What consisted of the 4 hour drive back, which I think could have been shorter, were two failed attempts to get gas and apparent 90-100 mph driving on the road.
Me being the sleepy head fell asleep constantly for chunks at a time… Once, I woke up to looking at the speedometer first and reading it as 100 mph… whaaa???? Didn’t feel like it though. The next couple of times I would wake up I realized we passed two exits with gas stations. Okay no biggie. That happened. Then I woke up again to Josh talking on the phone driving and it ensued in him asking Matt if we should stop for gas… answer: Yes. The ‘E’ light has now turned on. Okay no biggie. The automatic assumption that after the ‘Empty’ light has come on you have about 30 miles. That’s alright. Josh now realizes that that since the last exit with a gas station, we probably have hit the stretch of road in which well, there are no exits with gas stations. Great. Keep driving… well, well. GAS STATION!!! Get off at the exit, noooooooooooo! CLOSED! What is going on???!!! Okay okay, so it’s a no go, but we can do it, there should be about 20 more miles. I know everyone in the car wasn’t too happy about the gas station being closed but I’m there surely should be another one and it better be ery soon.
As we keep driving, I slowly get nervous. No gas station in sight, uncertainty is kicking in… alas! we find another gas station. After all we can make it. Downside: The gas station is 2.5 miles out of the exit! Balls! Even though we know there is a gas station, it is two and a half miles out! Who knows how much gas we have left. Crankiness and nervousness as we approach. Station is dark, so what — we’ll try to swipe the card. No go. What???!!! Again? Second Failure, Second closed station. Aggravation and nervousness. We get back in the car only to pray and cross our fingers about the fate of the car situation. This whole time I have been getting more nervous and sick to my stomach, aggghhhhHHH!!!! All I could think of was that, Matt and I had a shift later on that day around 3 and that we would run out of gas in the middle of the highway in the middle of nowhere, in the freezing cold and that we would have to sit there and wait til someone could pick us up and take us to a gas station where we would have to buy a gas can to fill up the car and drive back to where the car was, and all in all be late or not show up for our shifts at work and get fired. I need the moneyyyyyy HELLO!!!
So we drive back to the highway, another 2.5 miles wasted and uncertain. We get on the highway and I keep praying in my mind, GAS STATION please!!! Driving and driving … this time slower. Significantly — 60 mph compared to the 90’s we were apparently doing when I was asleep. Gotta conserve, because if you speed you lose gas fast, and I mean come on, we only had the ‘E” come on, whatever…
ALAS! I don’t know how many miles it was, it seemed forever, we see signs for restaurants and 4 gas stations… what are the chances of them not being open? hmmmm…. There is an open one! Shell? yeah… geezus.
THANK GOD. End of story. That is all you needed to know out of this stress of a mess. The rest of the trip back, piece-o-cake!
