After we left the rest stop at Salt Lake we were less than 50 miles from the Nevada border. The three of us humans and the two hounds, quietly enjoying our audio book. For myself, I was lost in my imagination of what it would've been like to cross in a covered wagon and wondering if this was the path the Donner party took. That is until a ping from my car shook me from my historic euphoria.
For those that don't know about the Volt cars here's how they work. You can charge them up and get around 40 miles on the battery before it switches to gas. In 2013, which is the year of my car, they added a feature that when you are coasting down a hill the battery will recharge itself. There is absolutely no downsides to owning an electric car, other than the fact that you often forget you will need gas every so often. This was just such an occasion.
That ping ping ping was my car telling me that I was almost out of gas and I only had 12 miles left on my battery. My car will also tell me how far away the nearest gas station is and what the price of fuel is there. At this point I had 2 choices, there was a gas station 27 miles behind me that I could turn around and go to, or there was a gas station 34 miles ahead of me. Being the person that wants to squeeze 90 seconds out of a minute, I decided to push for the one ahead rather than back track.
As we tackled hills pressing on into Nevada the panic started to increase. Let's call this kind of panic, 'Non-Breathing Panic' because I'm pretty sure I didn't breath from Utah to Nevada. We climbed the hills slowly and then put the car in neutral to coast down the hills and build up the battery. With each hill we climbed we all practiced a 'Non-Breathing Panic' and then did a very long exhale while coasting down the other side.
The more nervous I got about running out of gas the more I looked for some kind of fueling place on an exit. Tons of small exits with dried up ghost towns, all of them boasting 'No Services',
When I was just sure we weren't going to make it any further I saw an exit with some signs of life. There were some buildings and even about 4-5 guys outside of the building. Weighing the options.... go approach a complete stranger and ask for a gallon of gas to make it to the next town. Or run out of gas with 2 kids and 2 dogs and walk 13 miles to the town, then 13 miles back from the town. Guess I'm taking my chances with the stranger.
So as I pulled up the dirt road toward the men at the buildings I see a sign that read: Nevada State Prison, picking up hitchhikers is prohibited. At this point I let out a great big laugh and I'm sure my children thought mommy has lost it. None the less, we were there now so let's see what happens right? I approached the prison guards telling them my situation and they told me that they only had dirty gas. Not sure what that was I was informed that it's gas with oil in it and would wreck my engine, so we opted out.
I got back in the car not exactly sure what I would do next, I guess press on and take our chances? Not too many options. But wait! At the end of that dirt road are some construction office trailers and some kind of quarry. After knocking on the trailer door 2 of the nicest guys said of course they would help me out. They drove out into the field and came back with a gallon gas can. I asked if he took Venmo or PayPal, (since I had given my last bit of cash to the boy so he could buy a toy), he wouldn't accept any money from me. This reminds me, I still need to pay it forward for that random act of kindness. Next time I'm in a drive thru I'll buy the meal for the person behind me.
With that we were able to roll into East Wells Nevada and fill up with gas and get some lunch.
I'll be your cautionary tale here, if you find yourself close to East Wells NV and you find that you can press on to the next town for food and/or gas, by all means do just that. We stopped at what appeared to be a quick drive thru that didn't appear to be fast food. (Because let's face it, when traveling on the road with kids and pets you are pretty much beholden to the fast food chains). The place was called Bella's, and they boasted having foo foo coffee. Bonus! I pulled in to order a large foo foo coffee and a club sandwich and 1 vanilla milk shake for the girl. Imagine my surprise when she came back with a total of almost $40!!! For a sandwich and 2 drinks? We then waited for almost 45 minutes in a drive thru for this magical sandwich, shake and coffee. I'll admit that the sandwich was really good, it was stacked way too high to be eaten while driving. I was also able to get 2 meals out of it. But was it $40 good? Naw.
We pushed on to Reno NV where we found our hotel and settled in for the night.
My last words to the kids that night....."Don't let me forget to stop for gas in the morning".
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