Saturday, June 13, 2009

Driving on empty

Sorry I been busy doing so much so going to continue from the last blog from my Seattle trip.

OK on the way back from Seattle to Oakland, CA I had my dance crew with me. I haven't put gas in the car yet since the night before and we were now on empty passing through Eugene Oregon. It said that I have another 25 miles until I am on 0 in fuel so I skipped the Eugene exit and took the chance anyways to see how far I can make it before it is completely empty. There was sign that said 16 miles until the next gas stop and my gas meter said I have 18 miles left. I said perfect lets see what happens. My dance crew "Termites" started freaking out because it is all country and no stores or anything. Farm land everywhere so they were getting nervous. Now once we came to the exit when I had only 5 miles left of fuel there was no gas station. I went from a smile to being nervous that made the crew freak out.

They were like "Beto what are we going to do I'm not pushing this car!" They were yelling and freaking out. I didn't see anymore gas signs and we are already 25 miles south of Eugene that last gas exit. I knew I would not make it back. So I tried anyways as i went to the left over the over past. Then from the top of the over past I see just past it a freeway sign saying gas next exit 2 miles away. We cheered in excitement until I then saw that my meter said 5 miles left of fuel. "OH NO!" We we all started freaking out and it was to hot out side to push the car. I quickly got back on the freeway and as we were speeding up onto the free way I was trying my best to be light on the pedal but by the time I got onto the free way it went to 2 miles left of fuel and the exit looks to be exactly that. But by the time I was able to get some speed as diesel trucks zooming by us it wen to zero fuel. I came up to the exit and we are all yelling "You can make it! Come on! and yelling at the traffic lights ahead and the cars at the red light "Turn Green! Turn Green! and I was just cruising it on 100% on empty and there was the gas station and it goes green when I'm only going about 5 miles per hour across the intersection and cruised into the Cheveron gas station. We were in the car with the biggest rush cheering and celebrating as if we just watched the 49ers win the Super Bowl.

In Oregon they have a gas station guy fuel our tanks for us so he was smiling wondering what we were cheering about and once we told him he was all happy and cheering celebrating with us. It was funny. Sad thing is I didn't have my camera rolling. The whole time I wanted to pull over to get the camera out of the trunk but I knew I needed to save the fuel. It would of been the best reality video. Now my camera never leaves my side. We also noticed that it happened to be the same gas station we stopped at on the way to Seattle so it was even more strange that we came to the same place twice and didn't even know where we were.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Seattle Fiesta Road trip

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On May 15th I had decided to take off that day to Seattle for a bboy dance contest. I left Oakland, CA and picked up my dance crew “Termites Cru” from Stockton, CA. Imax in the passenger seat and Steven and Berna the 2 turbo twins in the back. They were very comfortable in the back but they are also only 5’2. It was a very boring ride on high way 5 passing through Redding, CA. We saw Mt. Shasta that made the trip more interesting but it seem to never get closer. 2 hours later we finally get closer to it and the tiptop of California finally got greener. Every time we had the opportunity to get a photo with the Mountain. The twins never travel and this is the 4th time they have traveled with me on my wild adventures. Once we were in Oregon it was nice fresh air. The roads became more crooked and then the car became more fun to drive. We stopped at a rest stop and we saw a roadway that was shaped like a racetrack. Imax and I took turns driving around it like driving a racecar. That was my 2nd test since the day we first received the car. I hit the sharp turn in 3rd gear and I was shocked how well the tires hugged the turns.
Imax then wanted to drive it so I can film the car from the out side. I said you can’t drive stick since he drives a Honda Element. So I let him try it by me riding with him and he freaked me out. He drove faster than I did on the turns as if he thinks he is driving a drift car. He had the cheesiest smile on his face like a kids first time driving a Go-kart.

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I then shot from the out side and had him do it again. The twins in the back seat felt like they were on a rollercoaster ride. After that we took more photos and continued our road trip. The twins started now getting bored of all the same trees and by the time we got to Washington they all got excited when they saw Crispy Cream Donuts. We missed the exit so we made sure we stop by the on the way back and we did. All the Crispy Donuts are all shut down in California.

Once we made it to downtown Seattle, WA it was 16 hours of driving for me. It was about 8:30PM and they wanted to see downtown and the Space Needle. We had the hardest time trying to get back onto the freeway to find a hotel, as the city was confusing. By the time we found a hotel it was about 11:30PM.

TO BE CONTINUED: