In which we almost die

This story is from awhile ago, back when the weather was better. Marquis came home from work to have lunch with us one day and decided to take his motorcycle back. A little while later I got a phone call from him where the background noise was so loud that I could barely hear that he was saying something, and no clue what he was trying to say. Thankfully we have internet on our phones and he was able to use chat to tell me that he was stranded at the side of the freeway. He thought that he may have run out of gas, so I packed up the girls and a gas can and off we went to rescue Daddy.

And now for a quick lesson in motorcycle mechanics. For the style of motorcycle that Marquis has, there is no gas gauge. You know when to get gas either by just remembering how many miles you've gone, or you can choose to simply run out of gas, and then switch over to the reserve tank to get you to the gas station. Marquis knew he was going to run out soon, so he wasn't surprised when he ran out going down the freeway. He was surprised, however, when the motorcycle still died after switching to the reserve tank. He was in the carpool lane and wasn't going to be able to get over to the right before it died completely, so he had to park the bike on the left side. More motorcycle mechanics, if you leave the key in the ignition while waiting for your wife to come rescue you, it will leave the headlight on and run down the battery. Whoops!

We had to do a lot of juggling to get the battery off and charged, more gas in, get the motorcycle all put back together, all while sitting just a few inches from a steady stream of cars zooming by. I sat in the car for most of it, but was so scared! It was loud and the cars were so close and so fast! I've also seen too many of those true TV shows where they show someone parked at the side of the road and an errant car comes and crashes into them. I was so incredibly relieved when Marquis got everything put back together, hopped on the bike and drove right off, hooray!

While I was sitting there, of course I took pictures. Here he is with the seat off the bike so he could get to the battery.

And this one shows just how close the traffic was. Thankfully the carpool lane never has the big diesel trucks!

Thankfully Sweetheart didn't pick up on how scared I was, both girls were so bored that they fell right to sleep!