Paying forward a Thanksgiving favor

I have this annoying tendency to ride the odometer pretty close to disaster prior to getting a fresh fill up for my van. There is a safe range of distance I know I can go without running out of gas. I was wrong once and got luck to get a tow from a construction truck the half mile to the gas station I was on the way to when I ran out. Flirting with disaster I decided to drive all the way past my post office to a gas station on 99 that I was pretty certain I could get to. I was wrong for the second time since getting this van.

Thanksgiving morning I ran out of gas on a major road with lots of traffic. This is a bad thing to have happen. But, as you will discover, I got very, very lucky.

The disheartening feeling one gets when pushing on the gas pedal and having a vehicle die is not one that is easily forgotten. I knew it when I felt it and was on the cusp of panic. I was just about at 200th and past a gas station and one little dip and rise and dip from the next gas station. I coasted briefly in neutral, turned the key as I was beginning to head downhill and got a little burst that took me up to about 35 miles per hour. There was not a lot of traffic at that point and I saw the light atop the rise at 208th. All I had to do was be able to coast enough up that hill and not stop and I could coast downhill into the gas station just past 212th. It was a good plan.

Good plans do not always work though.

The van died again while going up the rise. I let it coast and hoped it would be enough. With the van pointing up hill I would not get another start out of whatever token remnant gas was still in the tank. The speedometer slowed as the van slowed. I moved to the right lane out of the way of traffic and began trying to will the van through the light. With a smidgen of luck mixed with the bad the light turned red as the vehicle died at about 208th.

Popping the seat belt and hopping out I began to push, hoping for just enough of a start to get through the light as it turned green and the road would begin to slope down again. As I picked up a bit of steam the light turned green and I pushed and got the van through the light and felt it start to pick up speed.

Feeling rather smug about how good of shape I must actually be in I hopped back in and got ready to try one more fire up to get a boost through 212th and onward to the gas station beyond.

I looked in my mirror and was startled to see a guy about my age right up against the rear window, his red truck pulled to the side. There had been help I was not aware of that got me through the light. There was simply not time to stop and thank him as I began coasting down 99 toward 212th. I did lean out and wave and yell, "Thanks!" really loud. He acknowledged my thanks and moved on.

Either the world is paying me back in small ways for the crap I have gone through or I need to pay forward a huge favor to a random someone to keep my karmic balance at peace.

The light turned red at 212th.

I had to stop again.

A State patrol car crested the hill and coasted to a stop a few cars behind me. The gas station was only a partial block away. The light turned green and I turned the key, hoping to get one burst and not to simply have to coast and risk having to explain what happened to an officer.

The van fired up and I kicked it into drive and got up to 15 miles per hour before it died once again. I signalled right and turned into the gas station and coasted up easily to a pump. The State Patrol car slowed as he past, but kept going.

I filled up.

The odometer reading from that tank is getting close again. I think I will gas up this afternoon after school.