Yeah. We live in Oklahoma. Friday was an incredibly busy day for me. I had coffee with the guys at the Pilot's Lounge. They were talking about the weenie roast that we are all invited to. There is about one every month on this airport, thrown by whoever wants to. One guy dropped by to say that he would bring biscuits and gravy over for coffee tomorrow. He just felt like it. I like it. The Okies here treat each other as if we are family.
After coffee, I drove to Claremore, about 15 miles, to get an estimate on a repair for some damage to my car. It didn't take very long and then I was on my way to south-east Tulsa to see if I could purchase a plastic tube to be used for checking fuel level in the CTLS. We always use our fuel stick on the 172 and miss having that step in the preflight for the CTLS. When I got there and asked about the tube, they didn't have exactly what I asked for, but could come close, so they gave me (free) two tubes. Thanks. I love Okies.
Then I was off to another repair shop for another estimate on the scratch on my car. I noticed that the fuel indicator was telling me to get fuel, but I had a lot of errands, so I thought about putting it off, but pulled into a QuickTrip anyway. Their fuel pumps were not working, so I decided to catch the next one. After the estimate, I was on my way to a seminar about Medicare. I've been attending the seminars for as many Medicare plans as possible so that I can start to understand and make an informed decision. I've now been to three or four and have a couple more to go to. I ate lunch at Subway and then got a lot of Medicare questions answered.
I left the seminar and got stuck in a huge traffic jam because it was getting to be 3:00 and afternoon traffic was picking up. I pulled into a shopping center to go around and pulled out into the street when my car stopped running. It wouldn't start. I knew I was out of gas. I put on my flashers and got out of the car to see where the nearest gas station was. As luck would have it, I was not blocking traffic because I was in a left turnout. As soon as I got out, a car pulled up behind me and the fashionably-dressed woman inside asked whether she could help me. I told her I was out of gas and she said she'd be right back with some. (Right. I believe that.) As soon as she left, a cop pulled up and together we pushed my car into a parking place. As he left, he pointed out that my license tag was out of date.
The woman and a man arrived a few minutes later with a one gallon container of gasoline. Neither would take any money for it. It was enough to start my car and get me to the next gas station a mile away. She followed me there just to make sure. Okies. I now know that my gas tank holds exactly 11 gallons of gas.
This place may not be uptight about things like a car parked for too long. The tradeoff is with people who will go out of their way to help even when you've done something really stupid.