Today my wife was driving some friends to Kamloops where they were flying out of. We swapped cars as my fuel efficiency is way better and my air conditioning actually works.
She’d told me her car needed to be refueled and that she wasn’t sure I could even make it to 100 Mile. I hadn’t gotten up and left early enough to actually take the time to get gas but I was really quite sure it wouldn’t be a problem.
I, however, hadn’t quite thought it all the way through and when I was the last person to leave the office at about 9 p.m. I came to the realization I hadn’t taken the office keys when we swapped cars. Fortunately, my reporter had only just left and when I called her, she was just filling up on gas in 100 Mile.
This really should have been the clue that made me remember I needed gas; it was not.
I stood awkwardly in front of the office while waiting for her to come back.
Subsequently, thinking about what I still needed to do for the paper, I was just past the 108 gas station when I realized my error. Not a big deal I thought, I’ll just fill up at the Race Trac gas station in Lac la Hache…. which was closed.
Still, Clancy’s (Fas Gas) isn’t much further, I’ll just keep going. Clancy’s was, of course, also closed. By this point, the gas light had been on for some time.
I briefly debated staying at my parents’ place beside Clancy’s but what’s life without a little risk.
To be completely honest, I seem to have a bit of a life quest going of seeing how far exactly I can go in any car once the fuel light comes on.
The one thing I was absolutely sure of is that the car wasn’t going to be able to make it back to Clancy’s tomorrow. With our driveway a few kilometres long, it seemed like quite the risk to just go home, especially, because that would mean that if it did run out of gas it would probably my wife running out with the baby, not me.
This really only left me with one option: keep trucking to the one in 150 Mile House.
I can tell you, with the exception of one instance when I decided to drive around the far side of Lac la Hache (proudly dubbed the longest town in the Cariboo) with the fuel light on, this was the surest I’ve been that I wasn’t going to make it; however, I did make it and promptly soaked my shoes with gasoline.
When I got home my wife told me she hadn’t refueled because the baby was crying; let’s see if I can beat tomorrow’s challenge.