I had a little more than half a tank of fuel when I started on my drive from Raton to Taos on highway 64. Had no concern because I thought Taos was a large enough town to have lots of gas stations. However, I found the highway passed through a congested, trendy, part of town. I saw maybe two gas stations, but it was inconvenient to stop or I saw them to late. Kept on going on #64 and saw lots of large trucks, so thought there has to be gas stations around—but no, at least not with diesel. Just as you start to climb up Carson National Forest, thought I was in luck. A young girl was sitting and reading a book outside a small, independent station and one pump said diesel. Girl asked if she could help, but her face fell when I asked for diesel. They were out. Found out later that the station was going out of business, like many other small independent stations.
Kept on going, as I was past the point of no return to Taos. When the tank registered empty and a warning message started to blink I started to look for a place to stop. Found an area which I guess is for snow plows to use, and stopped for the night. It was cold and quiet, did not hear any birds, and snow was still on the ground in places. My Airstream has a small solar panel, so I was not completely in the dark. After I went to sleep that night, probably around 3 a.m., a loud alarm woke me up. I stumbled around looking for the source: was not the carbon monoxide or fire alarm. Finally, found it was the PressurePro tire monitor I had plugged into a 12 volt outlet out of sight. My battery was at 45% charge and caused the tire monitor’s alarm to go off.
Next day I was helped by a contractor putting in fence for the National Forest. He had a heavy duty Ford 350 or 450. He went to get gas in a town 25-30 miles west of where I was and returned and put it in my tank with a hose and generator he had in the back of his truck. So, luck was with me that time. It started to snow when I pulled out. The snow turned to rain as I descended the mountain.
