Back in the blogging saddle....

I have not posted in a week! Yesterday, I thought about blogging about the visit we had with our friends, Anja and Olivia, but it would be hard to describe their visit in one post. I decided I would just post some pictures, but Olivia beat me to it on their blog so if you want to see some pictures right now go there. ;) Sarah has told me she is going to upload some pictures onto our blog tonight so keep an eye out.. Actually there is one story I want to share about an adventure we had on the interstate....

We are on I-85 cruising up to DC, 80mph, suddenly a car switches lanes in front of me. I gently tap my brakes and we slow down to about 76mph, the car in front of us speeds up and I push down on the gas to speed up as well. Except the car does not speed up, if anything the car seems to slow down more! 73mph. Since I am driving their car, not mine, I figure my foot is still on the brake. 68mpg. I glanced to the floor and realize that I actually do have my foot on the gas! 64mph. Having nothing else to do I start pumping the gas pedal trying to rev the car back to life. 60mph. No dice, there is something seriously wrong here. 55mph. I ask Anja who is next to me if there is something about their car I should know. 52mph I realize Anja has headphones on and can't hear me! 50mph. I start tapping her on the arm. 45mph Olivia looks at the dash and gives news you really don't want to hear on the interstate: "Oh we are out of gas!" It seems their car is empty at a quarter of a tank, not the "E" 40mph. I get over in the right lane and as we come around a bend in the road I see an exit. 35mph. I am not sure if we are going to make the exit. Olivia and I start rocking back and forth trying to make the car go faster. 30mph. I pull off to the side of the road. 25mph we are slowly crawling toward the exit. 20mph. The exit ramp is up hill no way are we getting up it. We come to a stop on the side of the interstate about 65 feet from the beginning of the exit.

I tell the girls not to worry, there is probably a gas station at the top of the exit, I will just run and get some gas and be right back....When I reach the top of the exit I realize we are in the middle of nowhere and there are no buildings in sight! I see a stop light about a mile down the road so I take off running. Five minutes into running I realize I am extremely thirsty! I had run off without water! Before I get to the light, I come to a school building of some sort, guessing the people inside would know where a gas station is, I head inside. The lady behind the desk tells me there is a gas station less than a mile down the road. I breathe a sigh of relief, thank her and set off.....

After another 10 minutes of running, I realize the lady while kind had no concept of distance. I have now gone over two miles from the car and no gas station is in sight. Nevertheless I continue running in the direction the lady pointed me in. I run for about another five minutes and I have to admit here, I was getting a tad tired, I was wearing long pants, long sleeves and I had no water! Finally after another five minutes I see the top of an overpass for I-85 in the distance. Another 6-7 minutes and I have arrived at a gas station! I buy a little gallon tank, fill it up and ask one of the two attendants if they could give me a ride back, low and behold neither one has a vehicle!!!! So I set off on my return journey. Fortunately I cut probably a mile off by heading back along the interstate rather than back tracking the way I had come. Close to an hour after I had first left I arrive back the the car, put the gas in and we continue along our way no worse for wear. Some life lessons to remember are 1) Never run out of gas! 2) If you do run out of gas don't leave the car without water!