03:30 So I start driving to Lubbock. Now, Lubbock... between Austin and Lubbock there's a whole lot of absolutely nothing And, but I'm driving along so I'm trying to get... You better have a full tank of gas and lots of canteens of water. Right. So... That snake bite. So I had not yet acquired my requisite jerrycan of emergency gas and so you know I'm thinking I can get to, I gotta get to Sweetwater and it's like oh yeah I got half a tank it should be okay I'll pick something up between coal and Sweetwater where the hell I was
04:11 And I'm driving along and John there's nothing. There's not even towns. There's not even towns! You know, there is like a broken down shack on the right. Okay... Then I see a sign Sweetwater and look at my distance to empty or miles to empty so I've got 25 miles to empty and Sweetwater's 37 miles. I'm thinking wow, I can probably do this if I'm really careful and of course now going uphill It's like everything's working against me And and I'm like three miles and I see sweet water still 15 miles away, and I have never you know this
04:49 You know, this is not a mechanical indicator. It's all electronic I have no idea if it's accurate or can i coast in on fumes? Its 98 degrees I'm thinking...I do NOT want to be stuck on the side of the road 98 degree heat trying to figure out how to get some gas And now it's zero miles to empty. I'm easing off on the gas, when it's downhill and trying to coast a little bit like I'm so screwed! Then on the left up on the little embankment I see what looks like a trading post? Exactly... So I pull her over onto my shoulder, get out walk up and there is this kind of mountain man idea... Bill Wild Bill is his name
05:33 Hey, hey Bill. You got any gas? He says nope Can I buy some? Says no No you can't Are you gonna play the harmonica during my whole story? I think it's that he needs it It adds to the extra drama. You're stuck, the heat! The heat we can feel it. It's 90 degrees you're out of gas from some basic stupidity that we don't really understand but we aren't even going to question about it because it could happen to anybody and now your running into Bill in Sweetwater. No no he is 12 miles I said where is the nearest gas station? He said I'm on empty. Can you sell me some gases? Nope I don't want people thinking I am Exxon but I'll give ya some.
06:14 And so what was that I get this straight? Yeah, it doesn't because because if he sells you Gasoline the word will get out that he's Exxon. Yeah, he's ex on gas And and so he's walking around this is like a junkyard This shit everywhere and says well this used to be a gas station and I said I got a jerrycan over here And this is you know I had an Airstream For ten years every year we did 40 states of me selling jerky out at the back of it yeah It was good until the crisis hit me in Sweetwater sue We decided to buy this place
06:50 Sell the airstream so be it was kind of an air streamer, so you know he felt my pain Okay And then so then has his little gallon of Jerry jerry can do they know just one gallon with us very again You use that word a lot as a can of gas isn't called a jerrycan. I never called it That's what I said It's a European thing all right, so I'm crossing the road and your people are doing you know 75 down this down this roads? You got to be careful too And why because it was right over I'm right behind a hill so i can't see if someone's coming down barreling down 75 miles an hour So crossing the road carefully and I stick this stick the thing in the tank. I like wow, it's so empty I can hear it clattering at the bottom of the tank and like oh no It's clattering onto the road
07:35 Because I get it in the tank because these and these newfangled tanks have some they don't have a Top screw top. They have some safety latch mechanism, and you have to have exactly the right Most size. Exactly, so I'm sitting... To keep you guys from putting cheap gas in. Yeah shut up slave! So now i have like a pan to unlatch it and holding it in is like missing a third hand so I get about three quarters of a gallon in and this time at this point Bill's looking over my shoulder and says hey man really appreciate can buy this gas? No no I don't want anything. What are you selling the shop he says
08:18 Books and no and jerky So I go in and he's got a in the front of bookstore And it's like you know guns as a couple of Unix books or some hit Texas history books. It's a crazy collection And I see a box set, the Stieg Larsson trilogy. They're hardcover and they're all different colors... It's some kind of special edition. So I said, I'll take this! And then I see his jerky collection. He has got bison, he has got venison so I pick up a couple of those
09:01 And I say, man thank you so much. He says oh yeah, I can use all the karma I can get and said well you're talking to the right guy So if you're ever 12 miles south of Sweetwater go say hi to Wild Bill and Sweet Water Sue and pick up some jerky. Yeah but what is the name of their store? It's Wild Bill's Jerky. I think it's Wild Bill's Perfect Jerky or something So I make it to Sweetwater at least he's not he's not a He's not the man. He's not a suit Oh, No, but he said yeah You know after when we retired I was you know who's talking about where he wanted to live and he said At the top of the list was you know Florida and all these places at the bottom of list is Detroit New York City hell and West Texas Okay Of course this was West Texas which is pretty much