We left Arches and Moab and headed on towards Ouray, Colorado--about 3 hours away. According to the map, we would be passing through a few towns, namely La Sal, Utah and Bedrock, Colorado. Not huge towns by the size of their font on the map, but they were on there.
And so we weren't overly concerned when we noticed the gas was a little low. Surely, there would be a gas station nearby.
Oh. There was. At a little place called Hole in the Rock (see Rules of the Road #1). But naturally, we didn't stop. If we would've stopped we would've missed the procession of Corvettes. It started with one and then when there was a bend in the road, we noticed 3 others. As we turned off to head towards La Sal, we noticed another 8 in front of the big truck that was blocking our view. 12 Corvettes in one sighting. Beat that.
700 cows beat that, actually, because before long we came upon a herd of cows.
In the middle of the road.
At some point they all decided to turn and move towards us.
As it turns out, one cow has an odor, but 700 cows REEK.
But they left us pretty much alone, save for a few nasty glares our way. And we continued on, noticing for the first time that our fuel light was on.
Good thing La Sal, Utah was right there.
However, it became very apparent within about 10 seconds of entering the town limits that we would not find a gas station there. How could we be so sure? Because 10 seconds after entering we were exiting out the other side. And headed up into the mountains.
It should be noted that Bedrock, Colorado is approximately the same size font as La Sal on the handy-dandy map my parents let us borrow. For those who haven't consulted a paper map since the invention of Google Maps, a map designates how big the city is by font size. La Sal and Bedrock might be the tiniest font used on a map. Something I noticed as I futilely searched for one smaller to give myself hope.
It was about this time that Wade and I came to a daunting realization. We were going to run out of gas. In the middle of nowhere with no cell service (like who were we going to call? Mom and dad to drive 4 hours south to bail us out?)
I spent the next
We came upon a crossroads to another small town (same size font) that promised (at least one) bed and breakfasts. However, it was 3 miles off the highway. If we took the chance that there would be a gas station there and there wasn't, we might not have enough to get back to the highway. If we stayed on the highway we could potentially get the car a little closer to civilization.
(It should be noted that by this point, we had seen exactly one car and one motorcycle pass by).
The tension in the car was palpable as we coasted into Bedrock, Colorado. As before in it's Utah counterpart, La Sal, we were practically out of Bedrock before we knew what was happening. At the edge of town there was a general store on the side of the road that Wade pulled up to for the sole purpose of asking how far the nearest gas station was so we could mentally prepare ourselves for the task of hiking to it. As he pulled up to it, I spotted this on the side:
I'll admit, for a minute, I thought "what a cruel, cruel joke." But, giving credit where credit is due, I knew this was a direct answer to fervent prayers uttered in a constant stream for the last 30 minutes. I'm pretty sure the pump came directly from God. I ran inside to ask the General Store lady if it was indeed a working gas pump, and to my relief she said yes.
Insert BIG SIGH OF RELIEF here.
At a whooping $3.43/gallon (hey, we would've paid anything at that point), we stocked up with enough to get us to Ouray and we continued on our way, happy, relieved and more relaxed than I have ever been in my entire life. And my teeth had been ground down to a nice smooth surface, so bonus!
Is it possible to make the write up of our road trip longer than the trip itself? We shall see... Tune in tomorrow for Day 4--Tourist Alert
1 comment:
But with Dateline its always the spouse, I hear, so I don't get it?! Glad you guys made it!!!!!
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