West Virginia Nightmare
I was driving alone from Cincinnati to Beckley, WV. My friend had given me directions using state routes instead of interstate because it was much shorter; most of the route was 2 lane highway. After it got dark, I noticed I had a headlight out. It started raining, and raining, and raining. This was evidently a very popular route for truckers, because there was an endless stream of them coming toward me, almost running me off the road at times. I was nervous because I couldn't see anything, and as I got into the mountains, there were no towns and it was pitch black. Since I was concentrating so hard on the road, my gas tank got down to 25 miles left before I noticed I was low. I started looking for gas signs, and my tank hit 0! I am a 50-ish female, and the "Dueling Banjoes" song from "Deliverance" filled my head at the prospect of running out of gas on a dark lonely road in the mountains of West Virginia! Five miles after I hit 0, I finally saw a gas sign! I got off at the exit, but the sign didn't say which way. Naturally I picked the wrong way, and there was nowhere to turn around. I prayed very hard at that point that this road would lead to a town, and after 2 or 3 more miles, it did. The gas station was very poorly lit, so at first I thought it was closed, but it was OPEN! By the time I got out of the car, my hands were shaking so badly I could barely get the gas cap off.