Traveling Miscalculations

Believe it or not, there are limited places to get gas on Christmas Day and limited opportunities to eat.

The 'low fuel' light came on and we started looking for a place to get gas. We got off at...the Wilcox (?) exit. There were two gas stations and both appeared closed. I saw someone plowing an office building parking lot and I drove over, rolled down my window and asked where one could get gas. He said that the truck stop should be open, but other than that, we could go ten miles back to Black Falls or twenty miles ahead to the next exit. Frankly, I didn't think we could make either. We did, however, go back and check the truck stop and saw people there, this time, getting gas. The station was closed, but the pumps were set up to take charge cards without an attendant activating the pumps. Thank goodness.

We then had to drive another hour to find a restaurant open. We saw billboards for cute diner stops that we would have enjoyed; we saw exit signs for fast food, but none were open. I finally decided that our best bet was to stop at one of the national truck stop chains and hope there was a restaurant attached. This worked and we finally ate, at 3 p.m., at a Burger King attached to a Holiday Truck Stop near Eau Claire.

Lesson learned.