This past weekend I went back home to Mississauga, Canada. So nice! So fun! And I did very little....well much less than I normally do anyways. I pretty much just hung out with my family at home, visited my Dadi, visited my Nana, and saw a movie with my Mom and Sister (The Pursuit of Happiness, twas ok). The weekend, or at least the traveling was not, however, without incident.
It involved, in no particular order but overly dramatic stated fashion, sitting in an 18wheeler, running across 4 lanes of the highway (twice!), my plane being blasted with green liquid, and running out of gas on the side of the NY state thruway. Lets start at the beginning.
Friday night I left Brooklyn and drove down to stay at my cousin Alia's place in Hartford. My friend Caitlin, who also resides in Hartford, was having a bad day so I told her I'd drop by to say hello and we'll go for ice cream. She said you won't get in til past 10 nothings open. So I was like, ok we'll get ice cream from Mcdonalds. Anyhow, I pull in just after 10 and Mike arrives at literally the same time. So all 3 of us go to Mcdonalds and Caitlin orders a cone, Mike orders a sundae, and then I go up and ask for .....a small fry. haha, ok maybe you had to be there. They were like what happened to ice cream? it was your idea! I was like, I just changed my mind. But I did try dipping a fry in the cone. It was ok. They said they could taste the salt in the ice cream later :P at least for a sec in that area of the cone.
Anyhow, I went to Alia's and we (her, her husband, and myself) just chilled and watched tv for a few hours before finally going to bed at 1ish. 430....ack...I should have gone to bed earlier....we woke up and packed my van to head back to Canada. We were all quite slow and tired and probably should have slept in more b/c we took way too much time. We finally got all ready and packed by 630 and took off (just Alia and myself, her husband had work). The guage read 3/5 full of gas so we thought we'd drive til 930 or so and then stop for breakfast and get some gas.
The trip is going well, I'm making excellent time as I'm able to go 135-150kmph for much of the way. And then...at 920...the guage starts to go left to right...and then to empty, the light turns on. Uh oh, we decide to take the next exit to get gas. Then the guage goes back up. We still stick to the plan of getting gas right away. Then it goes to empty (this all happened in <10secs) and I feel the van slowing down. I pull over to the right shoulder and stop.
Then it starts to snow....yay.....
The next service station was 12 miles away....hmm.....but there was a Mcdonalds and gas station directly across from us.......hmm.......we looked left, we looked right...looked left some more.....and then ran across the highway. Jumped the barrier. Looked again, and ran across the rest of the way. Went up to the gas attendent asked him if he had a container. He told us its illegal for him to sell gas in a container. Booo. We ask for the number for a tow. And ask for his number as well and turn around to head back to the van.
There is now a cop car stopped behind my van. Thinking, man we are so getting a ticket for crossing the highway we think well maybe he can help us at least. I run back to the highway edge but he's taken off by the time I get there. We run across the highway, climb over the barrier, run across the rest of the highway and sit back in the van.
I find my CAA info (thank goodness my dad got it for me) and then call the gas attendent to find out where exactly we are. I wanted something a bit more precise than before syracuse somewhere on the NY State Thruway. But......gas attendent guy didn't write his area code.......argh. We call CAA and they ask about the highway marker. oh yeah! We get out of the van and run to the sign....clear the snow, and read the number. Get back to the van and wait.
The guy came 35mins later, gave some gas, just enough for us to get to the gas station and we were finally back on our way. (oh, he was driving an 18wheeler, why not sure, flatbed in the back i think to put cars on. so i got to sit in it while filling out the form).
We stop and get gas and food and I call home to tell them what happened. My mom makes fun of me and my Alia.
Mom: What kind of idiots dont' fill the gas as the first thing when leaving on a trip.
Me: Mom, the guage was not working.
Alia shouting in the back: Its not my fault!
Mom: You two, a cs degree and a lawyer can't even fill a tank. I told you I wanted you home early.
Me: Mom, I'll be home before 3.
Alia shouting in the back: Its not my fault!
Mom: laughing, I know its your fault.
Alia shouting in the back: Its not my fault!
Me: I should be home before 3.
Mom: I told you get here early.
Me: I'll be home before 3.
Mom: If you're not back before 3, you won't get any lamb chops or shrimp.
Me: Ill be back, dont' worry.
The rest of the drive went without incident. In fact I pretty good time! No lineup (like none) at the border really helped of course. I got home at 2:20, plenty of time to spare. Less than 8hrs total, which means I would have made it home in less than 6hrs had the gas incident not occured!
Anyhow, the rest of the weekend was w/o incident. Til I went home Monday. Big storm, lots of ice. I get to the airport at 645am. Already 25 flights cancelled. Mine's still going, yay! I get stopped by customs, as usual. It only takes 15mins this time. We board the flight on time....then we get delayed 3hrs as the plane has to get de-iced and the sprayed with anti-ice fluid. Once we're going its good. And the plane at little tv screens in the back of every chair so that was really cool!
Anyhow, wow this seemed like a long post. Congrats to anyone who read the whole thing. :)
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