Costa Rica Cost Of Living Update: Cost of gas—$0 because gas station ran out
The gas station is out of gas. This has happened before, and one might think it would be a good idea to not allow our gas gauge to dip below a quarter of a tank. But my husband thinks that idea is ridiculous, and cars can go miles— perhaps cross country—when the empty tank light starts to blink.
Rob appears to have a fascination with how low he can get that little red indicator. Not long ago, we ran out of gas and had to buy some from a guy along the side of the road. The entrepreneur poured some mucky stuff out of a Coca-Cola bottle into our tank, which in retrospect, might have actually been Coca-Cola. But it did give us enough time to make it to a gas station.
So if worse comes to worse, I’ll just look for a someone selling soda along the side of the road. Next time I’ll choose Pepsi, it might give us better mileage.
I have have proven many many times that indeed you can go at least 20 miles with the light on. I even did 30 miles in Costa Rica travelling from San Jose to San Isidro across the notorious Cerro de la Muerte. Truth be told most of it was downhill with the car in neutral. I think I may have learned my lesson then..hummm….but probably not
Unfortunately, I believe it is in your genes. There will a time where you will dance with that little red indicator again. I think there is an adrenaline rush in this sport.
Hey now, I’m a guy and never let my tank go below a quarter if I can help it. I only had to learn the lesson once.
Back in the day I owned an old beetle. A few weeks after I purchased it I discovered the gauge would not go below a quarter when I ran out of fuel on the expressway. I crossed 5 lanes of traffic and two jersey walls to reach a gas station; $20.00 later I was the proud “renter” of a 1 gallon fuel container full of gas (about $1.50). When I returned to to the station to fill up the owner gave me a $15.00 credit toward a full tank when I returned the container.
So far, we have run out of gas 3 times in our marriage, all because he would not stop. I’m praying there is hope for him, and some day he will just turn into the gas station voluntarily without me nagging him.
I used to do that, in my 20s. Now I never let the gas gauge go below 1/2. You never know!! And being here in California my biggest fear is to have a big quake and the gas stations be close for some time.
I’m going to mention that to him, considering we do get lots of quakes here. That might just get him to fill up more often.
krikey! And you guys have a long way to go to find an alternate station! Hubby does this too. I panick on a quarter tank and we have gas stations every three miles here. We have a word for it = a man moment. Don’t tell Rob I said that 🙂
I like that….a man moment. I truly believe he thinks he can go at least another 25 miles on gas fumes.
I think there is some sort of innate disbelief they have in the accuracy of that little red indicator. It must be a challenge to them to see how many miles they can get out of a car on empty……………………………………..?
That is hilarious and I have to say the same thing happened to me with my son. He passed up one of the only gas stations despite my comments of how we had better get gas. In the middle of nowhere he now says, I think we are going to run out of gas. Duh……………. So we stop at one of those soda places and he tries to talk to this woman about getting “gasolina” She says no she does not have any. So we go back to the car. Ryan says, if we sit here long enough she will find someone. So we sit in the car after buying drinks and stuff. About 15 minutes into our camp out in front of this place, here comes a man with a liter of gas. We happily pay him $5 for that liter and go on our way to the next gas station. Luckily we made it .
Why do men do this? It’s as if they have to see just how far they can go on gas fumes. I’ll never understand how their mind works.