Empty Gas Tank, Empty Car Charge Experiences

I have had two funny experiences in the past where the car I was riding run out of gas and charge. Both happened in the US! 

That fateful day we ran out of gas 80 meters away from the gas station.
Kala ko pagtutulakin nila ako ng kotse, hahaha.

Empty Gas Tank (2006)

The incident happened back in 2006. We stayed in the US for a few weeks for training. My scout brothers planned for us to do some driving on the weekend. They arranged everything and off we went to Napa Valley. 

Francisco took care of renting the car and computed how much gas we needed to get to our destination and back to Mountain View. We were on the highway on the way back when the gas gauge started to go red. We were still quite far from our hotel. The boys figured out we needed to refill the tank. 

In 2006, we were still using feature phones. We didn't really have access to the internet and Google Maps. We gave Tasha a heart attack when we called her to ask where the nearest gas station was. In the US, it's a big problem if your car stalls in the middle of the freeway. Luckily, there was a gas station in the next exit. 

We were about 80 meters from the gas station when we ran out of gas. Good thing the street was sloping down so we rolled to the gas station to get gas. My scout brothers kept reassuring me and P that we'd be okay. What they didn't know was I saw it as an adventure, haha. After that we got back to our hotel and breathed a sigh of relief.

Empty Car Charge (2015)

A colleague volunteered to give me a ride to San Francisco from Mountain View. Rides to SFO from MTV are very expensive, so I appreciated the gesture. I was also excited to experience riding an electric car. It was still quite new at that time and it was a good way to catch up with my colleague. We used to do special projects together before he moved to the US. 

Made it to SFO in one piece and managed to also meet up with a childhood friend. 

He immediately told me when I got in his car that he hoped the charge would be enough to reach the SFO office. I said, yeah, I have faith in you. We'll make it. What we didn't anticipate was the heavy traffic. At some point I was already thinking what I would do if we didn't make it since my luggage was huge and heavy (full of groceries from Target hahaha). 

We managed to get out to San Francisco, but had to stop to charge for about 15 minutes so we could get to the office. Good thing my meeting was scheduled in the early evening, so I wasn't late. I just found out recently that it didn't only happen to me. It also happened to another colleague who was visiting from Singapore, hahaha. He described it as a heart attack moment. That's why I remembered the empty car charge adventure. 

I never experienced running out of gas back home. My parents taught me to always have at least half a tank of gas at all times. I never let my phones die out either, haha. So experiencing running out of gas/charge was an adventure for me. I also trusted the people I was with, so it didn't cross my mind to worry. I'm Filipino after all and we all grew up to be resilient. 

#BeKind #StaySafe