Fuel Crisis 2014

We made it out of town and we made it to Coeur d'Alene! We had a wonderful evening on the Weeda Farm including firearms, chickens, lots of dogs, and rosters!! The kids had a ball!

Least you think we've figured out the driving cross country thing, I'd like to tell you a little story about what happened after we said our goodbyes to Brad, Char, & Maizie...

About 20 miles east of Missoula, Montana in an absolutely stunning part of the country which also happens to be completely devoid of filling stations, Lilly announces she needs a pit stop. Being road-hardy people, I turn on my blinker and begin to merge over to allow her to make a minor addition to the local watershed. When I glance down, I realize the fuel light is on...

HOW COULD THIS BE?!?! We just filled up in Coeur d'Alene! We're only 200 miles down the road.

I hadn't even looked, because we'd estimated much higher fuel consumption. I mean the trailer is larger and my Mario Andretti impression that morning probably hadn't helped, but 10 miles per gallon!?!?! I was ticked. How could this be?

And then my heart stood still. How would we get gas? We're 20 miles from any fuel pump and a turn around. CRAP!

We let Lilly out and formulated a plan. Tom would go ahead and find a station, then call me (at least we had cell service). If I ran out, he'd be that much closer to getting back to us.

We got back in the car and white knuckled our way down the highway. I may or may not have actually breathed...

13 miles down the road the lovely village of Drummond, Montana came into view AND they had a fabulously open gas station!! YEAH!!! We made it! Here's the picture to prove it.

And here is how much gas we took... That's right folks - 0.3 gallons remaining.

I stared at the gauge all day. As we'd feared the gas mileage with the new trailer and a full car is terrible. At some points I'm sure I could actually see the gauge falling toward the "E."

In the end we made it to Sioux City safe and sound although we hit a very bright colored bird that is still wedged in the radiator... it made it to Sioux City too, but not so much on the safe or sound.

It has rained A LOT in the 4 hours we've been here, but we didn't encounter any road closures coming into town. Garrett is already out running around town with cousins and Lilly is watching Frozen (again) with others!