A little gasoline is good for diesel

(originally written august 1)

So the night before Jessa´s departure our stove started giving us problems. We were having a harder and harder time lighting it and we presumed we didn´t have enough gasoline in the fuel bottle. I was getting increasingly nervous about traveling with it and so we decided to send it home with Jessa. This left us with quite the dilemma though. We were in þorsmork a pristine nature reserve only accessible by a 2 hour drive down a 4 wheel drive road. Where were we to get rid of the gasoline?

So I was wandering around the campsite, looking for someone to ask or somewhere to put it. I was walking in circles not knowing what to do and (gasp) considering pouring it behind the nearest rock when I spied a large group of Icelandic men standing around the BBQ. I walked to them "Excuse me, can you help me?" I asked the nearest one. He must have seen the desperation in my eyes as I relayed my plight. "And my friend and I need to leave directly for the airport tomorrow" I ended. He turned to the group of men around the bbq. And said what appeared to only be two short sentences in Icelandic. All of a sudden one of the men gets up in his 66 degree north fleece and says "Follow me". "It´s just gasoline?" he asked. " yes, but unleaded not diesel" I replied.

"how much is it?"

"1/3 full i guess?"

He shrugged. " A little gasoline is good for diesel" and walked to the other side of this truck, opened the gas tank and poured it in.

"thank you!!" I proclaimed.

" I hope my car doesn´t die on the way out" he said.

"I hope so too" I replied.