3/5/08 - Extra story, read main 3/5/08 first

The Long Story (read the 3 May blog entry first). Rewind a couple of
days, to when we drove into Northern Ireland (NI) we'd filled Pat to
the brim with gas knowing that the UK was more expensive than the
Republic (thanks to the UK's tax policy), we calculated of the miles
that we would cover while in NI and figured we'd make it the whole way
on just one tank. Well - I'm sure you know by now where this story is
going!! Our calculations were spot on, we then took the first exit
after the border in search of a gas station. However this actually
took us back into NI!! I (Daniel) figured that the gas needle had
only just got to empty, so we had at least another 20 miles, we
U-turned and headed back to the Republic. 5 miles later and heading
up a hill, the van spluttered!?! Knowing the consequences of running
a diesel tank dry and the whole bleeding process, we didn't take any
chances!! Quickly turning the motor off, got the spare gas container
(I know, I know - the reason for a spare container is to have some
spare gas in it!!), and started walking the 2 miles to the nearest gas
station. After a few unsuccessful attempts to hitch, a couple of
bikers came past - presuming they wouldn't be able to give us a lift
(due to no spare helmet), didn't even try thumbing a ride. But of
course, in true fantastic Irish hospitality seeing our gas container
one of them did a U-turn and told us (he didn't really ask) that he
would take the container to the next service station, and if we walk
back to the van we would meet back there!! Sure enough, they were
true to their word and they even insisted on giving us a ride round
the last corner!!!! To top this off, no matter how insistant we were,
they wouldn't even take our money we were trying to force on them!! I
do regret not giving them the address to this blog-site so they could
read how appreciative we are to them for getting us out of our
situation we were silly enough to get ourselves into. THANK YOU