Standing next to the Jeep while gassing up, suddenly gasoline started pouring out underneath the car in front of the left rear wheel. I stopped pumping; the stream of fuel let up and stopped. I thought about it. I restarted the pump. The stream restarted. I stopped. It stopped. I checked the gas gauge. We were half full. I concluded there must be a bullet hole in the gas tank about halfway up. We drove on.
The next day, we were in Phoenix, so Judy took the Jeep in to the Jeep dealer to get the gasoline leak checked. Their verdict: Operator Error. There was no leak! No bullet hole!
So, I always thought putting gas in the car was a matter of putting the pump nozzle in the filler tube and turning on the flow. It never occurred to me there was a way to do it wrong. I was maybe a little skeptical when we got the car back, especially when I looked at the gas gauge the next day, and it still only had half a tank of gas in it. How could they know there was no leak if they never even filled it up? Back to a gas station again. I put some gas in the tank; enough to go over half a tank. No leak. I pulled the pump nozzle part way out of the filler tube and put more gas in. No leak. I tried every way I could to put fuel in wrong. I couldn’t.
Operator error? I guess maybe. It doesn’t leak now, and they said they didn’t have to fix anything; but that’s not a totally satisfying explanation. Oh, the mysteries of life.
We’re in Rodeo, NM.
The Arizona Part of the trip map
It doesn’t count that we’re slightly out of Arizona, because we’re camped right here on the border so we can bird a little more in Arizona. Our last stop on the Arizona tour; we’ll bird the eastern side of the Chiricahuas.
This is them from our windows tonight.
