If you are planning a road trip, or curious about things to do before embarking upon a journey on open roads; this article will help big time. During our recent trip to Los Angeles for a music industry event we noticed some things that would be really helpful if considered before you begin your road trip. Everything was looking normal, gas stations, hotels and restaurants,etc...appeared at normal distance till we cross Texas. Distance between Texas to L.A could be a real challenge if not paid attention to Gas hand and fill the gas tank on time. I will start with ran out of gas experience between Texas and Arizona border in the middle of nowhere. Its mainly mountains and deserts. Distance between cities is higher in miles and even if you find a town it will be a small town where you can't expect anything. After dinner in the evening we went to fill up the gas tank we started driving towards L.A. Gas prices were higher at that pump so we filled half tank and thought we will fill the rest at next cheaper gas station. I am driving music is going on its all fun until i began to notice the darkness and mountains around me. I soon realize that there wasn't any town going to be appearing very soon. There was only one car behind me no other vehicles or any population to be found but pitch dark black and mountains in the middle of nowhere. A bit later the car behind me took over and went very far ahead where i can only see the brake lights every now and then. My wife had already fallen a sleep, hence it was only me who has started to freak out a little bit in my mind. Scary looking scenes out side; plain fields in a minute and tall mountains walls next minute, driving up and down the deep hills ; i kept driving. Slowly but surely i was sure about one thing that no town was going to show up anytime soon if i ran out of gas. And i knew we had not filled up the gas tanks so we are going to need some gas pretty soon. All this driving there was not a single vehicle behind me. So my strategy was to follow the brake lights and stay closer to it as well as drive faster and get to a nearest town or gas station. I was going as fast as i can hoping to come across a town but no luck yet after driving for 2 hours. Now it had started getting scary, the thought of being helpless in the middle of the night with no population around got me worried for a while. But i was still able to see the brake lights from the car ahead of me, so i put the pedal to the metal and started flying that van. After an hour of driving there was still nothing. so i remembered to look for signs on the side of the road and there it goes, a town only 14 miles away. It was a little ray of hope but still 14 miles in the middle of no where! By this time i was sure we were going to run out of gas but God only knew how soon. The sign had put strength in me and i kept driving. In a little bit i could see light and soon there were more cars and trucks and interstate exit to the gas station. It felt like i were coming back to life again. I entered that exit right away and there it goes i felt the pedal giving out and the van was about to go dead. It was still running fast till it came to a point where i had to decide which way to go for gas station left or right. I had to brake since i couldn't figure it out soon enough and the van shuts down very close to gas station, around the curves on top of a hill. When the van stops my wife wakes up and realizes that we were out of gas. We rolled the van a little bit but it won't roll and pushing it was not possible because of the road being on hill. All i had to do is climb a small hill, so i started doing it but there was a big wall and wired fence at the end of the hill when i finish climbing the hill. I had been driving the whole night, i was so sleepy that i even started to climb the fence but i couldn't. so I looked around and found a small bridge which put me on a walk way on the side of road next to the gas station entrance. As i am walking towards the door of the store i see my wife getting out of a truck. Avery nice lady had stopped by and given her a ride as well as dropped us back to the van. By the time Police arrives we were already filling the gas tank and drove to the gas station fill the tank up, kept some extra gas in the van and got back on the road right away; Sipping on a cup of coffee and enjoying the view of the sun rising. After all the darkness a morning rays felt refreshing. TO DO LIST: 1. Know your route - Figure out the states you are crossing, the weather, the geographical facts, etc... 2. Inform your Bank - Banks will shut down your card as soon as they see an out of state transaction which can cause a lots of inconvenience. Gather some info such as ATMs and branch locations, customer care operation timings 3. Weather - Research weekly weather and keep track of sun set times 4.Gas prices - Research all gas prices of all the states you are crossing 5. keep some extra pillows and blankets in case 6. Be prepared for things to go wrong, nothing works according to the plan you have in mind.
