Out of Gas

Today, I ran out of gas on the way to Carlee's dance class. The light came on last night while we were driving to pack meeting but I figured that I would be able to get gas this morning. We had a birthday brunch planned for our friend, Missy, so I was going to drop off some quiche at Geneva's, get gas, and head to dance class. As I left my neighborhood and was driving to the stop sign, the car started acting a bit sluggish. As I was stopped there and giving it some gas to go, the car completely stopped about 2 feet in front of the stop sign and in the intersection. Luckily it wasn't a major intersection but I was still in the middle of it. It was too heavy to push over to the side so I turned on my hazard lights and called my rescuer, Amber. Unfortunately she didn't answer her phone so as I was thinking about what to do, this little red sedan whipped around behind me and pulled up. Out stepped a high school senior that asked if I needed some help. Completely embarrassed, I told him that I had run out of gas and was trying to call my friend. He told me that he just lived a couple of neighborhoods over and would run home to get his gas can and fill it up. I gave him some money and he headed out.

I sat in the car with Carlee and we counted the cars that were passing us and staring. About 15 minutes later, the young man came back saying that his dad had the gas can in his truck. I told him that I had one in my garage and that I lived just a few blocks away. He then asked me if I was a Mormon. I told him yes and he asked what ward I was in. He was in a neighboring ward and we talked about people that we knew in the wards. He drove me home and I got our gas can which actually had some in it. Then we drove back to my car.

The gas can had some fancy lever and button thing on it and it wouldn't extend long enough to go into the tank so we were trying to figure out how to get the gas into the car. I was searching through my car for a cup or water bottle left over from a soccer or baseball game. Luckily there was a Sunny Delight bottle on the floor full of water. (I did notice a beer bottle on the ground next to the road that we could have used as a last resort)

We dumped out the water and took several turns filling up the Sunny Delight bottle with gas and then poured it into the tank. We were laughing and talking about how silly we probably looked to all the passers-by. He returned my money and told me that he wouldn't accept it because the blessings he would get for helping me was worth a lot more. I was proud that his parents had raised him right and extremely grateful that he stopped by to help me. I could have walked home or waited for Joe to come from work but this sweet young man provided a service that I will never forget. He even followed me to the gas station to make sure that we had poured enough into the tank.

Needless to say that we missed Carlee's dance class because the whole ordeal took about 45 minutes. She was a little sad because she was performing a dance to "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid, but she was satisfied with going straight to the "party breakfast at the Chuggs".

I don't know if we can chalk this up to one of my blonde moments, car trouble, being unlucky, or just a funny experience but it's something I'll always remember and be grateful for.