Travel disaster before leaving town

My Wife’s Travel Disaster

Unfortunately, you don’t have to leave town to have a travel disaster My wife had a business trip to Mexico this afternoon. I was busy with the “honey-do list”, so my son drove her to the local transit station about 12 miles away.

He used my car as it was easily accessible, but it had less than a 1/4 tank of fuel, more than enough for about 100 miles. He dropped her off at the station and returned home. About an hour later my wife arrived at the airport and realized she didn’t have her passport. So, I was called upon to deliver the passport to the airport.

She stood in the security line at the domestic terminal for about 20 mins before she remembered she was supposed to be at the international one…

Then she stood in the line at the international terminal another 15 minutes before she realized she didn’t have her passport 🙁

My Travel Disaster

The airport is about 45 minutes away and we had about 3 hours until her flight.  I grabbed her passport, my car keys, phone and headed out. My low fuel light came on as I hit the highway.  I knew I had more than enough fuel to make it to the airport and could stop on the way back if needed, no need to worry. My car showed that I had a range of about 90 miles at highway speeds, I was good to go.

I encountered a little traffic in downtown Atlanta that caused a 10-minute delay.  Since her flight was international, that terminal is easily accessible and is not as crowded.  I arrived at the terminal in just under an hour and met my wife outside, handed over the passport and off I went. Moving nicely on the highway my range was still looking great, should be no problem making it home.  My fuel range started to get smaller faster than expected and I decided to take a back road and stop for fuel. Still no worries, I’m in the home stretch.

I Made It

I pulled into a station for fuel. Reached down for my wallet, and there was a void in my console where it should have been. I looked in the seats, felt my pockets 3 or 4 times, no wallet to be found. My feeling of relief for making it to a station to get fuel went downhill. I was about 21 miles from home and my range was showing between 10 and 16 miles.  I could get part of the way home if I had all green lights, best case. I called my son to let him know I would also need to be bailed out of a situation. I am sure he was thinking what kind of freaking idiots he had for parents.

Running on Fumes

I pulled away from the station slowly and caught a green light, and the next 7 or so lights were green. There was no stopping me now. My range started to move back up to over 20, getting better. I might just make it. I should have kept my mouth shut, hit the next 3 lights were red. Oh no, the range is now 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 miles.

I set my sights on a station I knew had diesel fuel, called my son back to let him know where to meet me. I had 3 miles of range left and the station about 3 miles, I can do this I said. Pulled away from a red light and bam, 2, 1, 0 miles left. It was a slight incline so I took it easy, cleared the top of the hill and back to 3 miles it went. The next 2 lights were green, I pulled into the station with 1-mile range left.

About 10 minutes later my son arrived, I fueled up and took a deep breath before heading home. Travel disaster averted and everyone was where they needed to be.