Our time in Whistler is over. It was a great season - fun times with people we met out there, nice skiing and what may be their best snow year in 15 years! We packed up the car, and did the drive in one straight 31.5 hour shot. Taking turns sleeping makes it go a little faster, and we lucked out with pretty clean and ice-free roads.
We got to do some fun math thinking on the road. Here's one of them:
1. The 2004 Toyota Matrix has a goofy gas tank gage. From somewhere right around 20% full to below the "E" line is only about 15 miles of actual driving.
2. There are some areas, particularly one in North Dakota, where it is 43 miles between towns, plus an additional 10 miles if you miss the really-really-small-town exit before that.
3. 43 plus 10 is 53. This is quite a bit more than 15 miles. 53 minus 15 is 38 miles.
4. Once the Matrix gas gage is at the "E", you have about 37.8 miles until the car dies. 37.8 miles is less than 38 miles.
We ended up running out of gas. After a half hour of driving with it well below the "E" mark, it started sputtering on the freeway, which was very close to an exit ramp where a sign claimed there was a gas station. Unfortunately it was a mile or so off the freeway. Fortunately the exit ramp was downhill which seemed to have the right angle to slosh a little more gas in the lines, which gave us enough to sputter up the next hill. The car died just before the top of that hill- we put it in Neutral, coasted to the top and just barely had enough momentum to get over the top of the next little incline and start coasting downhill again into the gas station. All in all - we coasted about 1/8 mile, straight into the gas station. Whew- that was a little closer than we were aiming for! :-)
