Insight: Going nowhere fast

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

Seeing a photo of a hang glider last week jogged my memory of a time in my past I’d rather forget.

Ed Pierce's 1978 Buick LeSabre.
COURTESY PHOTO

It was October 1987 and I was working the 2-11 shift as a reporter at a daily newspaper in Albuquerque, New Mexico. When I left home to drive to work that afternoon, I was low on gas and figured I’d cash my paycheck on my lunch break and fill up. It was also 75 degrees and sunny, so I got into the car without taking a jacket.

Somehow, I got busy at work and never took a lunch break. When I stepped outside to drive home after my shift, the temperature had dropped to 38 degrees and snow flurries were in the air. Starting my car up, I noticed the fuel gauge was close to low but the grocery store where I would cash my paycheck was closed. I decided to drive home and hoped I had enough gas to make it.

About six miles south of Albuquerque on I-25, my car ran out of gas, and it was near some steep hills where I would spot hang gliders taking off from time to time.

I stepped out of my 1978 Buick LeSabre and stuck my thumb out to hitchhike. At about 11:45 p.m., an Army soldier in uniform stopped and offered me a ride. He said he had just attended a Christian concert in Albuquerque, and that it was the Christian thing to do to drive me the remaining 10 miles south to my house in Peralta, New Mexico.

Reaching my home, I thanked the soldier who then drove off. I then grabbed a warm coat, about $8 in quarters, and my gas can. It was a short walk of under a mile back to Highway 47 and the Circle K convenience store. I used $2 to fill the gas can and waited for someone driving north to ask for a ride back to my car on the side of I-95.

At about 12:30 a.m., a rusty old yellow pickup truck pulled into the Circle K lot, and a fellow wearing a cowboy hat got out and pumped $5 of gas into his gas tank. There were two other men in the pickup’s cab and two more bundled up under blankets riding in the pickup truck’s bed.

I approached the driver paying for his gas and asked if he was headed north to I-95 and if so, could I ride with him to where my car was. He smiled and asked me how much it was worth to me. When I offered him my remaining $6 in quarters, he scooped it out of my hand and instructed me to jump in the back.

The guys riding in the truck’s bed with me said they were oil workers heading home after working at an oil rig near Artesia, New Mexico. They had exited I-25 hoping to find a gas station, had become lost, and ended up at the same Circle K where I was. Inside the store, the clerk had told them to head straight up Highway 47 past the Isleta Pueblo reservation as they would reconnect with I-25 in about eight miles.

Riding in the pickup truck bed was brutal. It was now snowing and between that and the wind blowing all around me while driving at 55 mph, I was absolutely freezing. 

Nearing my car on the opposite side of I-25, I banged on the pickup’s rear window and signaled to the driver that it was where I wanted to get out. He pulled over and I thanked him for the ride. I put the gas in my car, and it started right up.

But before I could leave for home, I noticed one of the oil workers waving his arms and shouting at me from across the highway. He ran across the highway divider and told me that one of the front tires had blown out on the pickup truck and it was now flat all the way to the rim. They apparently didn’t have a spare tire or even a tire jack for emergencies.

The driver asked if I could drive him back south to the Circle K store where he could buy a can of Fix-A-Flat. As a joke, I asked him how much it was worth to him and he said he would give me my $6 in quarters back. I told him that was a deal and I said that I would even bring him back to the truck after he bought the Fix-A-Flat.

We took off in my LeSabre and I waited while he went inside the store. I drove him back to the pickup truck and stood by while they inflated their front tire. I made a U-turn and headed back south for the 10-mile ride home.

I crawled into bed about 2:15 a.m. and the next morning, I called my friends and shared my experiences of the previous evening with them.

Here’s what I learned. First, I always bring a jacket with me in October while driving at night. Second, I always keep plenty of gasoline in the gas tank of my car. Lastly, I always have some cash available in case of an emergency. <