Well... as you know I drove up yesterday. It started raining the moment I left my driveway and didn't stop til sometime late last night. I had my trusty GPS on the window and watched the time/miles/speed the whole way... just waiting  to not be driving in the rain... if i could have had the top back, it would have made the drive much more pleasant.

Somewhere just north of Atlanta... about 80 miles from my destination of east ridge, I was thinking to myself, wow, I am getting pretty good gas mileage... as i putter along in the middle lane... I start calculating it in my head... I wasn't worried about gas because I hadn't hit the red yet and I knew that I still had a gallon or so once I hit red...

There are a couple of things I didn't factor in here... one, I am in a very hilly area... gas can slosh around and miss it's outlet to the fuel line. two, I always comment about how on the drive home I have a quarter tank of gas and then in the morning when I am rushing to get to work i no longer have a quarter tank i am on empty. and finally three... my gas gauge will stay on full for the first couple hundred miles and then suddenly drastically drop... when you get to the 1/2 mark I have learned that you really only have about a quarter tank left.

So as I was puttering along i started doing the math in my head... I had gotten gas in Valdosta GA at exit 16... I was now at about exit 290 or so... we all know beetles only have a 10 gallon tank... and granted i do get around 30 MPG... but i was going 70 the whole way... to think that i still had a whole gallon left would mean i was exceeding 30 mpg.

about this time my car started coughing on me. remember, i was in the middle lane going up a hill. I quickly get myself off the road and i can see an exit in front of me... but again i had to get up the hill first. i stop the car with the needle not even to the red yet. I get out and go check the engine, remember it is still raining too... and everything looks to be normal... nothing out of place, oil good, not hot, no smoke etc... then i go to the gas cap and open it up... all i could hear was air... sounds like i am out of gas eh? so i get back in the car and turn the key to the on position... the needle now drops to almost the bottom of the red "you're empty you idiot" mark. so i attempt to start the car... what do you know? it started right up? perhaps there was some sort of vapor in the lines from being hot from driving 280 miles non stop?

So now... where's the gas? i see the exit in front of me, but no signs of gas stations anywhere... this is one of the few exits like this. but there has to be civilization somewhere right?

now where was that i saw on my GPS that you could look for gas stations? and people thought that you had to be stupid to have to use a GPS to find a gas station because you always know how much gas you have and there are always signs on the interstate of where the gas stations are... well... sorry to say my car's gas gauge wasn't working right and your well labeled interstate gas stations were not labeled at all... so i plug in what i needed and my GPS told me where the closest gas station was. Unfortunately for me, the closest one was 1.7 miles... mostly up hill.

Would you know that the car actually made it? well... almost made it... I was 600 ft from the gas station... no more gas... and i wasnt about to ask any more of my little car... it saved me 3 miles of walking in the rain by getting me as close as it did and there was only a slight drizzle at this point. It would have been nice if the police officer that saw me driving on the side of the road with my hazards on would have stopped to see if i needed any help though. But, i made it to the gas station... what do you know, the police officer was there eating his lunch. I asked him if he had a gas can i could borrow... he said no. so i asked the lady at the gas station if they had one. She said yes, but they are expensive. I told her that's fine, my car is 600 feet up the road and i don't think your pump will reach that far.

so i bought the $8 gas can and the $2.40/gal 87 octane and then the cop pulled up next to me. how about that, it started pouring rain and he offered me a ride. and told me he was just trying to take his lunch. he brought me to my car and waited to make sure it started up and i was on my way. car started up and ran like nothing ever happened. i drove back to the gas station and filled the tank.

would you believe all of this only set me back 15 minutes? seemed like forever... but as much as i complain about my little mexi and all of it's quirks, it's a great little car. I just know now that i need to turn the car off and back on so the weirdo gas gauge will read correctly... i don't even know how you would go about correcting that... probably a new sending unit and gauge from mexico... or maybe retrofit it with an old skool german one?  :lol:

anyhow... i got about another 30 miles down the road and a semi merging on to  the interstate tried to squash me in to another semi... i had to slam on my brakes and nearly come to a complete stop to avoid him hitting me... then i started to call and report him... then decided not to... so i passed him as he was barely doing 60 after several miles... then i decided no... i should report him... that was pretty scary to see one semi blocking me on the left and another semi that just didnt really care and wanted the right of way on the right (correct me if i am wrong, but the people coming on the on ramp to the interstate are to yield to those already on the interstate regardless of who is bigger?). so after finally getting him to pass me i reported every number that was on that truck so they could figure out who he was. sorry to ruin your day guy... at least you didn't hit me this time... that would have made your day worse... you should thank me and my mexi's brakes!

so that was my trip report... hopefully the way home will be much less eventful... and with the top down!

well at least you made it here safely!!     that sounds like a horrifying last hundred miles!!   :shock:

well... my bug did me well... i couldnt have asked it for a better ride in 8 hours of rain (some of which you couldnt see 10 feet in front of you and yet people were driving without their lights on)

Hey !  I can't belive Zen didn't tell you about carrying a 2 gal. gas can.
        I belive he has a few extra cans around. Maybe you can talk him out of one. I also belive he holds the club record for times running out of gas. I think he even runs out gas when he's not driving anywhere :lol:  :lol:

haha well... this quirk wont get me again... i know how the pesky thing works (or doesnt?) now!

as i was driving home today my gas gauge kept fluxuating between 1/4 and the red... so i decided since i really had no clue how much was in there i should get some gas... i had two gallons left... but i didnt want to have to use that $8 2gal gas can again!

lol... you can never have too many gas cans!

it's always good to know you have friends... I would rather everyone know that I ran out of gas than to be stranded somewhere and no one know where i was!

I can't wait to join you guys in TN/GA!

you should get somewhere in the 25mpg rang +/- 3gal if you are running the stock setup...