Stranded

So...

I'm on vacation until Tuesday and had lots of plans for hiking, camping, and participating in other fun activities that involve driving around or out of the city of Charlotte.

The gas shortage, however, has me stranded at home. In the past two days, I've robbed two spare lawn-mower fuel tanks (the Waller's and ours) of every last drop of gasoline. I'm sure that the Escape doesn't have more than half a gallon of gas in its tank at the moment and the gas light has been on for almost two days straight. My mother has called me three times in the past 24 hours to see if I've been able to fill up my gas tank yet.

I ventured 2 miles away from the house this morning (with the bright red spare gas tank in the trunk - just in case) in search of fuel but found only one station with gas...and a line of cars a mile long waiting to fuel up. My measly half-gallon of gas would burn off before I got to a pump, I'm sure. I really didn't want to break down in line at the gas station and have lots of panicking, moody, rushed drivers become violent with me (because, believe me, people have been getting violent).

Aaron's 4-Runner has half a tank of gas left and it's our only transportation at the moment. With the news that the gas shortage in Charlotte may continue into the middle of next week, we're conserving as much as we can.

In the meantime, I'm taking some time for myself, walking wherever I can, and enjoying the beautiful Fall weather. Sometimes when the Lord wants you to slow down and take it easy, he takes away distractions (i.e. - cars full of fuel) that keep you from doing just that.

I'll keep you updated on our fuel situation...