The Trip Home From Brisbane

Grandma had had enough of Big C playing on his ipod, so she insisted that he read a magazine.  There were no children's magazines to be found, so he selected these instead:

I pulled Monkey out of school an hour early and we headed to Dubbo.  I noticed that the gas tank guage was low, but not terribly so.  I completely forgot that Dave had suggested a few weeks ago that we use the trips to and from Dubbo to get gas as the prices everywhere other than Mudgee are about 10 cents a liter less.

I picked up Grandma and Big C with no issues.  The Dubbo airport is tiny and their flight was a bit early.

About 30 km outside of Dubbo the gas light came on. (insert swear words here).  We stopped in a tiny town to confirm what I already knew, there are no gas stations open between Dubbo and Mudgee after 5 pm.  It was 5:08.

For those of you for whom rural Australian geography doesn't come readily to mind, we were just over 100km from Mudgee.  There is no phone reception between Dubbo and Mudgee.  Mom and I took stock and decided, based on some past good luck and close calls that we would drive to Mudgee.

Mostly I think we did it because we were hungry!  So I put Grandma on Kangaroo watch and off we went.  She dutifully read the manual for the car and we tried to do all of the most efficient driving that we could.

We did spot a small wallaby, but luckily it stayed on the side of the road and we passed it with no interactions.

It was tense as we got close to Mudgee.  I prayed and poured cold sweat all over the steering wheel.  Mom kept reassuring me that with ever passing km we were getting closer to the point where a friend would be able to bail us out.  I was absolutely not convinced that we were going to make it.

We cruised in to the gas station in Mudgee (where gas is $1.43/L with 5L still in the tank (we did the math).  So while we stood in the gas station paying for our 65L of gas my mother spoke these words "honey, let this be a lesson for you, that car can go at least 150 Km after that light goes on. You had lots of gas!"  I don't think it was the speech most mothers would give (some other might have called me irresponsible or some such), but that's why my mom and I get along so well!

We got home and Dave had dinner waiting in the oven.  He had been oblivious to our plight due to the lack of phone reception.  As soon as I mentioned what had happened he just looked horrified that I hadn't bought cheaper gas in Dubbo...

Then the wine was poured.