Out of Gas
This afternoon after work, Lisa and I went to Fallon mainly to shop at their larger Big R. We weren't able to find everything we wanted, but we did get a new swamp cooler pump and some other items for which Lisa was looking. The pump is not expensive: $35 plus tax.
As we were returning to Fernley, the Astro started coughing. I was out of gas! I coasted to a place that was off the highway and safe. I was very surprised, as the Astro typically has a range of up to 500 miles, but I had run up only about 400. However, Lisa reminded me that I've been running the air conditioning most of the time, and that on Tuesday, I somehow managed to drive all the way to Reno (around 40 miles) with the van in D instead of OD, which is harmless, but wastes fuel.
We had just passed the Fox Peak Gas Station, and Lisa asked why I had not pulled in there. I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, but later I realized that the reason was that I would have had to make a left turn at the traffic light, and I didn't want to run out of gas while in the left turn pocket. However, because after that turn I didn't feel safe pulling over unless I'd been forced to do so and until I reached a much safer place to do it, we ended up about 1500 m beyond the gas station.
So there was nothing for us to do but to walk back to Fox Peak, buy a small gas can and a gallon gas, and then walk back to the minivan. Oh, I could have called AAA, which would have been included in our service, but it probably would have taken at least an hour to get anything done. I think it took less time to do the walk and get the gas ourselves. It's a little tricky crossing US-50 at the Nevada Pacific Parkway because there is no pedestrian crossing, and the westbound lanes literally never get a red light because of the nature of the intersection. Fortunately, there were sufficient gaps in traffic that we were able to get across the road.
Fortunately, it was just being out of gas. Lisa poured the gallon of gasoline into the Astro and it started right up. We drove on to the Pilot truck stop and refueled. When I did the math, I found that the gas mileage on that last tank was only about 15.5 miles per gallon. I'll need to bear that in mind for our trip to Westercon and refuel more often.
After refueling, we headed home to install the new water pump, but that's a separate story.
As we were returning to Fernley, the Astro started coughing. I was out of gas! I coasted to a place that was off the highway and safe. I was very surprised, as the Astro typically has a range of up to 500 miles, but I had run up only about 400. However, Lisa reminded me that I've been running the air conditioning most of the time, and that on Tuesday, I somehow managed to drive all the way to Reno (around 40 miles) with the van in D instead of OD, which is harmless, but wastes fuel.
We had just passed the Fox Peak Gas Station, and Lisa asked why I had not pulled in there. I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, but later I realized that the reason was that I would have had to make a left turn at the traffic light, and I didn't want to run out of gas while in the left turn pocket. However, because after that turn I didn't feel safe pulling over unless I'd been forced to do so and until I reached a much safer place to do it, we ended up about 1500 m beyond the gas station.
So there was nothing for us to do but to walk back to Fox Peak, buy a small gas can and a gallon gas, and then walk back to the minivan. Oh, I could have called AAA, which would have been included in our service, but it probably would have taken at least an hour to get anything done. I think it took less time to do the walk and get the gas ourselves. It's a little tricky crossing US-50 at the Nevada Pacific Parkway because there is no pedestrian crossing, and the westbound lanes literally never get a red light because of the nature of the intersection. Fortunately, there were sufficient gaps in traffic that we were able to get across the road.
Fortunately, it was just being out of gas. Lisa poured the gallon of gasoline into the Astro and it started right up. We drove on to the Pilot truck stop and refueled. When I did the math, I found that the gas mileage on that last tank was only about 15.5 miles per gallon. I'll need to bear that in mind for our trip to Westercon and refuel more often.
After refueling, we headed home to install the new water pump, but that's a separate story.