A Nail Biter

The truck has not gotten very good gas mileage pulling the fifth wheel. Actually it has gotten alarmingly bad gas mileage. We changed the air filter last night, maybe that will help a little. We hope to get a chip to put in that will help with gas mileage and pulling at some point. God has been good to provide.

Yesterday as we approached Albuquerque, NM we didn’t realize that we were driving past the last gas station for 20 miles. Sam wanted to pull over, but I thought it would be fine to wait until Albuquerque not realizing that actually was Albuquerque. They have what they called a safety corridor which is a stretch of highway through a small mountain range where there is almost no were to pull over and in some areas, due to construction, one lane and no shoulder. About a mile into the “safety corridor” our fuel gauge, which had been holding at a little below ¼ tank, fell and the low fuel indicator came on.

Naturally we deducted we should stop at the next gas station. Then we watched mile after mile go by with no gas station. As we drove through the tight corridor with one lane and no shoulder we imagined running out of gas with fast moving traffic behind us. Finally we began to see exits with signs for food and shopping, but still no gas. Now we were in the heart of Albuquerque. We reached the exit for the church we would be parking the RV at that night and still could not find a gas station. Finally I spotted one and Sam took a right turn. Now he was driving in heavy city traffic and we were concerned about being able to pull into a gas station with the trailer. As we approached the station we saw they had no diesel! We were all stunned and unsure what to do next. We had no idea how to find a gas station, with diesel, that we could pull into with the RV and we were about to run out of gas at any moment.

Then we saw on the right a station with diesel, big enough for us to pull into and the pump easiest to assess was open. As we pulled in and breathed a huge sigh of relief the church we were staying at called to see if we had found a gas station. Sam said, “You have never been in a more praying vehicle!”