Friday, August 3, 2018

Gas Tanks

This past weekend, I made a trip to Lowes in order to exchange my bbq's propane tank.  They have a cool program (like most big box hardware stores do) where you can exchange empty tanks for full tanks.  While I waited for the clerk to unlock the cage and exchange my tank, a man arrived to the front of the store to load up propane tanks into his truck.  He had purchased 3 empty ones of his own.  As I watched him drive away, I chuckled remembering a time my dad had done something similar.
My dad loved to grill on the bbq.  He cooked a lot of our family meals and many of them were made on the grill.  When my parents moved from California to Hawaii he bought a new grill for the backyard.  Shortly after, their local Costco had empty propane tanks on sale.  As an avid griller, he wanted a few on hand.  On a side note, this was a common theme with my dad.  Why have one extra when you can have 3 extra because you bought them inexpensively at Costco? Now the Costco in Kona happens to be on the way to the Kona airport from my parents' house, and during that sale I was was flying into Kona for a visit.  They decided to make a stop at Costco before coming to pick me up at the airport.  That was a logical plan in order to not make the trip two times, however it wasn't all that smart of plan.  You see, 9/11 had happened less than two years before and the airports, even the teeny island ones, were on high alert.  The Kona airport had police at their one and only entrance in order to check ALL cars that came into the airport.  My parents had driven their Jeep Cherokee that day to accommodate three propane gas tanks AND my luggage.  As you can imagine, the police were not thrilled to see those gas tanks.
My parents explained the tanks and after demonstrating they were empty, the police let my mom meet me at baggage and sent my dad and the car off into parking lot exile.  When I got off the plane and said my hellos to my mom, I asked where my dad was.  She explained their mistake and detainment as we walked across the airport to where my dad was waiting with his propane tanks.

7 comments:

  1. What a funny story! Reminds me of a time when I was in college and heading into the Union Hall with my backpack to grab a bite to eat for lunch. Somehow, I hadn't heard that the current U.S. President was there. Almost there, a guy in a trenchcoat and sunglasses stepped in front of me and asked me where I thought I was going. I gave a flippant reply and then noticed the bulge of a gun up near his shoulder and realized who he probably was. Fortunately he gracefully let me slink away and I had to eat lunch out of a vending machine that day.

    Although I haven't yet, I've been wanting to convert my grill to natural gas and connect it to my city gas line so I never run out of gas and have to exchange tanks again.

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    1. Ha! Good story.
      Yes, I know a lot of people who have beautiful built in grills that are attached to their regular house gas. That is so cool!

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  2. Well I guess you couldn't blame the airport officials, considering!

    Loved your other story, too, about all the Costo bulk buying. We shop at a Sam's Club and I've been known to buy enough TP and paper towels to last an eternity! :D

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    1. Oh I agree! It was so soon after 9/11 that I think we weren’t as used to heightened security then, especially in Kona. Now we’d never think of such a thing. But it was funny after the fact.
      Thank you. It gave us a chuckle.

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  3. Great story. I have more than once run out of propane in the middle of grilling so having a spare - or two - makes perfect sense to me.

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    1. Ugh! I know! It takes me a long time to get through it, so it’s hard for me to gage how much is left. I did buy a reader awhile back that’s been mostly reliable. Although most recently I think I returned a more than empty one because the gage wasn’t reading right.

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