The Stranded Gerry Can

It always seems to happen to us. When we’re altogether, the three of us run into strange situations.

This past weekend, I got together with two of my girlfriends from my first year at Humber. Oh, the first year of college, what a wild ride it was! I had my own lil’ posse, which consisted of two girls, including myself and when the three of us all got together, trouble occurred. We never really asked for it. It just happened.

So this weekend, it was a road trip to my friend, Laura’s friend’s cottage. I hadn’t seen the girls in over two years. We’ve gone our separate ways over the past months and decided, what’s a better time to reunite, than to hang out on a beautiful beach and soak up some sun?

My friend, Deanna was traveling from London, Ontario to pick Laura and I up in Toronto. Even though we had another two hours of driving ahead of us, she was in great spirits upon arrival. We hugged. We laughed and shared our critical observations about each others appearance before heading off to Honey Harbour.

It was a road trip, an adventure and an estimated two hour. Two hours my ass! Firstly, we stopped at the Yorkdale shopping mall to pick up our alcoholic beverages for the weekend. And, if you’ve been to Yorkdale at 7 p.m. on a Friday night, then you know already that it wasn’t a quick trip.

Well, we finally made our way out of the mall and we finally arrived in Barrie, but we still had a way to go. Then we decided to pick up our groceries, before we entered no-man’s-land (that took about a half an hour).

"On the road again. Going' places that I've never been. Seeing things that I may never see again, And I can't wait to get on the road again"

Oh, good ol’ Willie Nelson. I sang that tune every time we got back on the highway to keep the complaining ladies smiling and happy. LOL! So, we drive and we drive and we drive. We had to make one final stop at Laura’s friend’s parent’s place to pick up the keys to the cottage.

On the road again, something strange began to happen to Deanna’s car. It’s her baby and she knows when she’s hurting. We were following Laura’s friends the entire time driving up and they kept us close that was until we ran into trouble.

Chugalug, chugalug, chugalug… The car finally stopped moving. We ran out of gas on the side of the highway and the boys ahead of us were nowhere to be seen. We knew we were in trouble.

Deanna just made it far enough, so the car wasn’t in the middle of the road, but we were still not in the best place to be stalled because the car stopped right on the side of a turn off and it was hard for cars behind us to see.

Laura and I piled out of the car, while Deanna struggled to get her keys out of the car. The keys wouldn’t bug. Luckily, we had just pasted a gas station, but it was on the other side of the highway. So, we decided that two of us would cross the highway and one would stay with the car. The only problem was that we had to cross a four lane highway and it was pitch black out.

Then all of a sudden, just as I decided to haul up my skirt to get someone’s help, a pick-up truck pulled over to see what the problem was. It was a man with his wife and two kids. (I’m still laughing. Laura was doing impressions of the man’s voice all weekend because we all agreed he sounded like the cookie monster).

We’re not that mean though. We were very grateful. He even figured out why Deanna’s keys were stuck (she didn’t put her car in park). After getting the keys and locking up the car, the three of us ladies, piled into the back of the pick-up truck and headed to the gas station.

We never imagined that we would be in the back of some stranger’s truck, so the entire way there, we laughed and laughed.

We got to the gas station and the only Gerry can available was $16.99. I’m not cheap, but that’s enough for one stupid Gerry can. Anyway, the gas station girl with a bug on her face told Deanna that she trusts that we’ll bring it back, so she let us take it.

Oh Karma… oh karma… oh karma… oh karma…

The guy in the pick-up truck got us back to the car as close as he could. He couldn’t get us all the way there because it was a one-way turn. So, there we were. Hauling our asses through a ditch with a huge ass Gerry can full of gas. Oh my god, if you could only see us. We were screaming, afraid of what was in the ditch, wondering how deep the ditch was and hoping none of us would fall to the bottom of the ditch.

When we got back to the car, Laura’s friends were there to help us. We poured the gas into the tank and left the poor Gerry can on the side of the highway. Okay, not to make my friends and I sound like total bitches. The trunk was full of our bags and food and the gas tank was a mess because we spilled all over the place when trying to get it into the tank. We could have gone back, but it was already 12:30 a.m.

We finally arrived and getting to the cottage was worth it. Yes there were deer flies, mosquitoes and lily pads, but it was all worth it when I looked around and saw that I was once again hanging with the girls that started my college years.

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