Tag Archives: germany

Cars

What if you don’t have enough gas, can you still get there?

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I HAD TO MAKE a 335km trip today. I forgot to get gas last night. The car has a computer that indicates how far you can drive until the tank is empty. The computer said 277km. Not enough gas. I can only buy prepaid, tax-free gas at Esso stations, so traveling takes some planning. (Unlike American freeways with multiple gas stations every few miles, the Autobahn will only have one station every 50km (31mi) or so. (Yes, I can buy gas anywhere if I have to, but who wants to pay $8/gallon?)

The “distance to empty” calculation is based on the recent average fuel consumption. As I drive on the Autobahn, the average increases, and I am getting closer to the destination. About 75km into the trip, the “distance to empty” is 318km. This means I can make the trip w/o stopping for gas. But should I?

About the time I have all this calculated, I see an Esso station. Should I stop? Oh, I can’t stop. The exit is closed by a permanent construction site (“Dauerbaustelle” for those of you working on German vocab.)

No problem. Too early for gas. The math looks good. The kilometers-driven are increasing ever so slightly faster than the “distance to empty” is decreasing. Ninety minutes later, there is another Esso station. I still have a 50km cushion. The math looks good. Keep going. Uh oh. Big hill. Well, it turns out going down the far side recaptures most of the loss going up. Still have 50km extra.

At 125km “distance to empty” the little yellow warning light comes on. Hmmm. 125-50 is 75. How far is it actually until I get there? The iPhone shows I’m right at 75km to the destination. Good. The needle keeps falling. And falling. The computer is still reassuring me. Until…

The Autobahn is again hilly and full of curves. The needle is now almost touching the bottom of the markings. Hmmm. The math looks good. Can I trust the computer? Hmmm again.

I decide that I will stop at the next gas station. It’s better to be safe than sorry. I can always claim “I was pretty sure I’d make it, but just wanted to play it safe.” Sign says next gas station in 5km. Next sign says my exit is in 3km. No, it’s not the same exit.

I leave the Autobahn without buying gas. The needle is moving “below empty.” Hmmm. Maybe I should not have done this. It’s illegal to run out of gas in Germany. OK, next gas station it is. There isn’t a next gas station…

Every time the transmission shifts or there is a bump in the road I feel like the engine is about to quit from fuel starvation. Oh, why did I do this? The needle is so far below empty that I don’t know what’s going to happen. The computer says 44km of gas. The iPhone says 20km to the destination. What happened to my 50km cushion?

A crossroads ahead. GPS says go straight and the iPhone says turn right. Hmmm. The GPS is 20 years old. The iPhone is not. Turn right. Where the heck am I?

I get to the back gate of Tower Barracks (Grafenwöhr, Germany) and ask for directions to the gas station. When I get there, the computer shows 18km to empty. I put 56 liters in my 60-liter tank.

Average fuel economy: 31.3 miles per gallon or for Germans 7.9l/100km. I drove that tank of gas ever so carefully!

Biographical

German Ancestors From Near Wiesbaden

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MY DAD became quite the genealogist in the last 30 or so years of his life. He would tell me some of the things he learned, but it was never as interesting to me as he probably would have liked it to be. Now, I wish I knew more.

How will it feel to visit a place my ancestors walked out of to find their way to a sailing ship to the New World?

Years ago I gave my dad Reunion genealogy software for the Mac. After he died in 2013, I got a copy of the family history file from his computer. As luck would have it, as the actual purchaser, I was able to download the software and confirm the file was intact. A few months ago I purchased the latest version.

I learned yesterday the base library has a subscription to ancestry.com. This reminded me my dad had once told me we had some German ancestors. That surprised me, because I was under the impression that side of the family* was “all British.” Last night I started up the computer, opened the file and searched for German ancestors. I found a name and a town. I googled that combination. The top hit was for someone descended from the same person! (I’ve emailed her, waiting for a response.)

The town of Eisern in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia only had about 250 people when the whole Rehlsbach family left for Virginia in the mid 1700s and became the Railsback family. Some five generations later, I’m writing about it.  Eisern is about 1-1/4 hours from where I am now. Road trip!

I was born in the Navy town of Oak Harbor, Washington. We moved to Memphis, Tennessee when I was a month old. I’ve visited Oak Harbor maybe ten times since. Each time, I’ve thought “I should feel like I am at home here” but I don’t. It’s not my home, but it has significance. My brothers have all spent much more time there than me. Aside: This may be the only thing in my life I wish I could go back and do differently.

If my birthplace makes me feel odd, how will it feel to visit a place my ancestors walked out of to find their way to a sailing ship to the New World? There were no trains, planes, or automobiles in those days.

A screen capture showing back to my great-great-grandparents.

Back to the digital records. Each record includes some bit of information, at a minimum the person’s relationship with people before and/or after. The record also indicates my dad last updated his own record more than ten years before he died. Looking at it now it appears as if he were 83. It makes me feel sad to think about changing it, but it’s probably apropos his record is the first one I should edit as I take a small step towards learning about Genealogy myself.

*I had long known that I have a couple German great grandparents on my mother’s side. There’s not really enough German density in the family to explain why I like this country so much.