To paraphrase Sinatra, “Dumb mistakes? I’ve made a few.” Yes, throughout the course of our travels, I’ve made my share of dumb mistakes. Of course, what I’m referring to are more accurately described as careless mistakes. A dumb mistake is something you might make on an IQ test. A careless mistake is far more common when camping. Sure, you may know that it’s unwise to open the sewer valve before attaching the hose. But you got in a hurry, and you did something careless. And now you have nasty water spilling on the ground.
I’m happy to report that so far my dumb mistakes have caused minimal harm to others, our Airstream, and the environment. I haven’t pulled a BP and spilled ten billion gallons of black water in the Gulf of Mexico. I haven’t forgotten to properly hitch our Airstream before driving away. I’ve done little things. Like the time we were in North Dakota and I filled SEEMORE’s diesel belly full of gasoline.
What happens when you put unleaded gasoline in a diesel truck? My understanding is that you can put a few gallons in the tank and be okay. While I’m not recommending that you try it, I’ve been told that a couple of gallons in a large 30-gallon tank wouldn’t hurt things too much. An entire tankful of unleaded gas, on the other hand, can cause all sorts of trouble. It can cause your engine to go kaboom.
In this case, I was fortunate on a couple of fronts. First of all, I discovered the problem before cranking the truck. If I had fired up the truck and driven away, it’s very likely that damage to bearings, pistons, and even a head gasket could have been the result. Things would have gotten messy and expensive very fast. We would have faced a massive repair bill, one probably involving a rental car and an unplanned extended stay in a campground. Since I discovered the problem right away, the risk of damage was minimized.
Secondly, we were lucky that this problem happened in North Dakota. The state may have a small population, but it ranks unusually high on the “nice people” charts. Rodney, the fellow who rode to our rescue, was fantastic.
I spoke with him about the situation. In most places, the diesel island is 100 percent diesel. You can’t really screw up royally when pumping from the diesel island. In North Dakota, there is also unleaded fuel on the island. Hence my dumb mistake. When I pulled into the fueling station, I spotted the diesel island. I quickly hopped out of our truck and filled my tank with fuel from the first pump. It was only upon returning the handle to the pump that I discovered my mistake.
In the background under the red roof are the unleaded gasoline pumps. Our truck SEEMORE is parked at the diesel island. Usually when you see a dedicated diesel island that is separated from all of the unleaded gasoline pumps, you can only obtain diesel from that island. Here there was a gasoline pump on the diesel island.
Rodney told me that he’d visited this particular station before on a similar syphoning job.
“That guy was a Texas oil company executive,” Rodney said, “who was in town on business.”
I nodded. There were several oil fields in the vicinity of this North Dakota town.
“Boy, was he mad,” Rodney chuckled. “He couldn’t believe that there was unleaded gas on the diesel island.”
In contrast to the executive, I wasn’t angry. Sure, I think offering unleaded fuel on the diesel island probably isn’t the greatest idea, but the situation was ultimately my fault. I somehow managed to find the humor in the situation and laugh about it.
After Rodney finished syphoning the unleaded fuel out of our truck (a process that took at least an hour), it was time to settle up.
“What do I owe you?” I asked.
Rodney shook his head.
“Nothin’,” he replied.
“I need to pay you something,” I insisted.
“For what?” he said with a wry grin. “For takin’ your gas?”
Sure, I gave Rodney the tankful of gas, which he turn gave to local farmers. But most tow companies would have stuck me for a hefty bill. Let’s suppose he charged me $150. Then I would be out that sum plus the amount paid for the gasoline, so this fiasco would have been a $250 mistake. Then I would need to pump another $100 worth of diesel, meaning this would have been a $350 gas station visit. That’s enough to spoil anyone’s day.
But Rodney was incredibly kind and generous. We left town thankful that this particular dumb mistake happened in North Dakota. In the end, thanks to Rodney, it didn’t really spoil our day.
Hi Sean.
I see you’re getting the issues with the site ironed out. Did you fuel it up from the wrong pump too? (sorry, that was a cheap shot)
I only feel relatively comfortable giving you the cheap shot, since I too have fuelled up a diesel from the gasoline spigot. I put something on facebook, but I like this little box more.
It’s not like it was the first diesel we’ve ever driven either. I think that makes it somehow worse.
Here in Wienerland and pretty much the rest of Europe, as you may well know, all the pumps are all over the place. There’s no such thing as a “diesel island”, since a large portion of the vehicles run on the stuff. There’s even regular diesel and the extra expensive stuff. Not sure what the extra expensive stuff does, but I throw it in if it’s available. I know, I haven’t done my research, but I’m not actually paying for it. (*blush*)
That was the one thing that made the previous refuelling nonsense somewhat less onerous, and that was that the whole thing was covered by Leaseplan, which in turn is paid for by my wife’s company. Spoiled or what? Even when I’m a complete idiot they cover my hind end!
We only suffered the inconvenience of wasting a couple hours and the damage to my pride. Caught a little bit of flak from some buddies back home, since I put it on the blog. Helluva way to get blog fodder though.
Oh wait, I think I’m preaching to the converted!
I’m sure Seemore is running just fine.
Best to you and Kristy.
(I almost once again spelled Kristy wrong, and realised, it’s at the top of the flippin’ page!)
Bob.
Hi Bob,
Yes, sadly, I spent many hours over the past week trying to get our site a clean bill of health. Sometimes my biggest “dumb mistake” seems to be starting a blog. 😉
I have a friend here in the States who hails from South Africa. He’s a brilliant guy – a surgeon who worked extensively with NASA, has published books on pathology, etc etc. He told me that once he and his family were traveling in Europe, and he mistakenly put “gasoil” (gas/oil mixture) into the fuel tank of his rental car. They made it a couple of miles before the engine died and their vacation turned into a fiasco, at least for a day. So, I guess it can happen to anybody!
I have a friend who is flying to Vienna today – he and his family are spending the autumn in the Czech town of Breclav. If we come over for a visit I will give you a shout!
Cheers,
Sean
Another great video!
For me yes the scenery and the park is beautiful and incredible! I find myself now looking back and thinking….were all here on this earth for a reason. As much much as the sinking feeling of OH CRAP I was happy. Not, for the fact of your misfortune but for the fact you were able to tell the story of Rodney.
I find people in life do what they are meant to do Cops, Fire fighters,Rescue workers, tow truck drivers and story tellers. With out the story tellers and things that happen to us we forget just how human, humanity can be. The places will relativity all ways be their but, the people….. it is about the people that we need to tell and show just how we treat one another.
Sean, thank you again I always love TLLH but when you tell stories about the people you meet those are the ones I love the most. I find myself drawn to people and their stories and lives. Thank you again for sharing your travels and life with a bunch of nameless faceless people!
Matt
Thanks Matt! I really like what you say about people doing what they are meant to do…. and yes, meeting someone like Rodney sort of made the whole experience worthwhile. As soon as I realized that I’d filled our tank with unleaded, of course I was upset… but that quickly faded. At the end of the night, I ended up feeling quite lucky. Thanks again for your comment!
What a wonderful example of storytelling. You hook us, hold our hands through some wonderful images and keep us guessing through to the very satisfying ending (complete with outtakes). Nice job!
I think that sunflowers equal happiness. I don’t think you can be unhappy around those bright yellow flowers. I know when I tow my “Sunflower” teardrop trailer around, I get nothing but smiles.
Thanks Christina! This video was for you. 😀 I know of your love for sunflowers. You gotta take your own Sunflower up to North Dakota someday. There really are fields of flowers that stretch to the horizon.