Gas, Gas, Everywhere

Started in: Albuquerque, NM
Ended in: 30 miles North of Roswell, NM
Pandora’s Status: Out of gas.

Its a weird feeling to realize you have enough gas to drive for 20 minutes but don't have enough gas to go back to where you came from, or enough to get to where you are headed.

I ran out of gas headed to Roswell. There just were not enough gas stations on the way. I would have needed an extra container of gas with me to make it. I now know that I can go 100 miles on a tank of gas.

I was pushing my bike down the road (because I did not know what else to do) when another biker stopped to help me. I tried to syphon some gas out of his bike using a hose taken off of my bike. The house was not long enough, and all that I accomplished was getting some gas in my mouth. If you ever want to learn how to spit, just put a little gas in your mouth.

I continued pushing my bike and spitting, thinking that it really sucks to get gas in your mouth. Little did I know, this was merely foreshadowing...

I had pushed my bike about 2 miles when the small fuel tanker truck stopped to help. The driver unrolled his 4" diameter fuel hose, and attached a gas station like nozzle to it. He told me he had to turn the flow on all full bore because of the way his trucked worked.

Let it be known, Ural gas tanks have a weird fill area that is very constricted, and most nozzles only fit in a little ways.

Every time I tried to fill the tank, I small geyser would erupt from the gas tank and drench poor Pandora in fresh gas. We stopped and thought -- the driver found a large, long, narrow funnel we could insert into my tank. He opened his trucks gas valve and I proceeded to fill the tank

I squeezed the trigger on the nozzle as slowly as I could, and out gushed a powerful flow of gas.

The funnel had an unexpected effect -- it launched a wave of gas directly back at me. My head, face, and chest were completely drenched. I had clamped my eyes shut just before the gas hit me. Now I was fumbling through my sidecar, eyes still closed, face burning, trying to find a water bottle to pour over my face.

The driver found his eyewash and used it on me (it felt like heaven).

We were eventually able to fill Pandora's tank using a water bottle held low to the ground. We could then slowly fill it with the run-off from the fuel truck.