It was a beautiful day as my son and I drove West across the Colorado Rockies into Utah. When we left we had a full tank of gas and the sun at our backs. I had done the math. The gauges showed we’d have 50 miles left in the tank when we got to our destination. We were good.
But I was wrong.
Although it was a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky, we had a fierce headwind for nearly the entire drive. Wind, dust, tumble weeds, and large trucks blew all over the road.
I didn’t keep an eye on the gauges and just kept driving.
We stopped one time for a restroom stop and to pick up some more munchies and even then I didn’t check the gas gauge.
At one point we stopped at a viewpoint to take in the beauty of Utah! And it was a beautiful site. Wow, God’s splendor was on display, even in the wind.
When we were about 100 miles from our hotel stop for the night I looked down and saw that we had only 75 miles of gas left in the tank. Uh oh.
What happened? We were supposed to have an excess of 50 miles and now we were short 25? How? Why?
…The wind and the mountain climbs.
When you travel the I-70 there is a stretch where there are no gas stations for 100 miles. We were on that stretch and new that we were in trouble. As we descended down the mountain I decided I needed to coast in neutral to save gas.
Have I mentioned the wind? Oh the wind. Despite going down hill on a pretty steep grade, we were losing speed. When we dropped to 50 MPH, I’d put the car back in drive and get up to 75 MPH and then coast again in neutral.
25 miles to empty. 35 miles to the next gas station.
15 miles to empty. 20 miles to the next gas station.
The math was improving, but not enough.
10 miles to empty. 15 miles to the next gas station.
5 miles to empty. 8 miles to the next gas station.
We prayed that God would get us there! And we did get there.
With less than 5 miles in the tank, we rolled into the gas station.
What lessons did I learn?
- Check the gauges often!
When you are working on a project, circumstances change and you have to account for those changes.
- Pray
We asked for God’s mercy! And for wisdom as to what to do.
- Trust your gut
Leaders make decisions that others don’t always understand. At one point, our GPS said there was a gas station 30 miles off the highway and we had approx 30 miles left in the tank. My son wanted to get off the highway and head to the nearest gas state. The next gas station on the main highway was 40 miles ahead. I chose to go ahead, knowing that if we did run out of gas, we’d at least be on the main highway close to a more populated area. I had to weigh the risk and reward and chose to continue on, over the objection of my worried son. I told him I was worried too, but he’d needed to trust me.
- Cherish the shared memories.
Although stressful, we now cherish the memory of almost running out of gas. The “we” is important because it’s now a common memory that will forever have an impact on our lives.
Finally, get out there to go places. The route we chose was unknown to us from the very beginning. We didn’t know what to expect, but we made the journey anyway.
What journey are you on? Watch your gauges and go.
Photo by Artur Solarz on Unsplash