Episode 30: Gas Station Pit Stop & GPS Route Check — 5,000 Core English Words

📖 This lesson is part of the comprehensive series 5,000 Common English Words Through 46 Real-Life Conversations by Echo Stories English.

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Chapter thirty. Leaving home.

It is six thirty on Saturday morning. The car is packed, Feather is next door with Rosa, and Emma is standing in the hall with her keys. Ryan is still at his desk upstairs, doing one last thing on his computer.

Listen to the language of leaving the house, setting up the navigation, and buying gas and snacks at a station on the way out of town.

Emma: Ryan! Hurry up! Shall we go? The car is running!

Ryan: Two minutes! I'm making a backup.

Emma: A backup of what? You're on holiday.

Ryan: Of everything. I recently had a disk fail, and I don't rely on luck. It's automatic, but I want to see it finish.

Emma: You promised me. No work.

Ryan: This isn't work. This is the opposite. I'm closing it down. Look. I quit the browser. I activate my out-of-office message. I disable every alert on my phone. There. It's a clean desktop with one icon.

Emma: What does the message say?

Ryan: "I am away until the fourteenth, with no access to email. For anything urgent, please connect with Simon." And a link to his profile.

Emma: That's efficient. Did you tell your manager?

Ryan: He told me. It was his idea. I think he wants to operate without me for a while, to prove he can.

Emma: Good. Is there anything else on that machine that needs you? A virus? A piece of spam? A social forum that can't function without your comment?

Ryan: Nothing. I've scanned it. Shutting down. See? The screen is black.

Emma: A breakthrough. Now pause, breathe, and come downstairs.

Emma: Let's do the house. Did you lock the back door?

Ryan: Locked. I checked it twice.

Emma: The windows upstairs?

Ryan: All closed. Except the small one in the bathroom. I left it open a little, for air.

Emma: Close it, please. Rain can come in. And put the covering on the garden chairs. Did you turn off the stove?

Ryan: We didn't use it this morning.

Emma: Humor me.

Ryan: It's off. The oven is off. The coffee machine is unplugged.

Emma: The lights?

Ryan: I left the one in the hall on a timer. It comes on at seven every evening, so the house doesn't look empty.

Emma: Clever. And the garage?

Ryan: Closed. The spare key is with Rosa, plus the number of the hotel.

Emma: Do you have your wallet, your phone, your glasses? Your belongings in general?

Ryan: Wallet, phone, glasses. And you? Sunglasses? Your sketch book?

Emma: Both. Okay. Out. I'll lock the front door. There. Done. Don't look back.

Ryan: I want to check the door.

Emma: I just locked it. You watched me.

Ryan: Allow me one small exception. There. It's locked. Now I can go.

Ryan: Let me set up the navigation. I'll put the phone on the hook here, and plug it in.

Emma: Do we need it? It's one road north for six hours.

Ryan: It shows the traffic. And it has a function that tells us where the gas is cheap.

Emma: I miss paper maps. They had significance. You could draw on them.

Ryan: This is an innovation, Emma. A small processor, a few circuits, an optical sensor, and a link to satellites. It's a revolution in my pocket. There's more capacity in this phone than in the computers that went to the moon.

Emma: And it still sends us into a lake. Nobody can fix that.

Ryan: That was one time. The interface is better now. Look, I type "Silver Falls Lodge." It calculates. Six hours and forty minutes, with no delays.

A calm voice comes from the phone. "Starting route to Silver Falls Lodge. In four hundred meters, turn right. Then continue straight for three kilometers."

Emma: She sounds nice. A good communicator.

Ryan: She's virtual. She's a talented piece of software.

Emma: Can she tell a joke?

Ryan: No. That's the actual limit of the evolution of machines. I'll tell the jokes.

Emma: Then it's going to be a vast, quiet journey.

At the edge of town, they pull into a gas station. Ryan stops beside pump number three and goes inside to pay.

Clerk: Morning. How's it going?

Ryan: Good, thanks. Can I get forty dollars on pump three, please?

Clerk: Forty on three. Regular or premium?

Ryan: Regular.

Clerk: Is that cash or card?

Ryan: Card. And these two coffees, and this package of gum.

Clerk: Anything else? The baker just delivered. Those are still warm.

Ryan: Two of those, then. What are they?

Clerk: Cinnamon rolls. You won't be sorry.

Ryan: And do you have a restroom?

Clerk: Around the side of the building. It's locked. Here's the key. Just bring it back.

Ryan: Thanks. Can I also check the air in my tires here?

Clerk: The air machine is next to the car wash. It's free. Just press the button and set the number.

Ryan: Perfect. Would you mind if I get a receipt?

Clerk: Here you go. Where are you headed?

Ryan: Silver Falls. For ten days.

Clerk: Nice. Watch out at the mountain passage, about an hour before the town. It's narrow, and the camper vans take the whole road. Drive safe.

Ryan: I will. Thanks for the tip.

Emma: You were gone a long time. I was getting stressed.

Ryan: I got coffee, gum, and something from a baker. And advice. There's a narrow pass near the end, with campers.

Emma: Then I'll drive that part. What's in the bag? Oh, they're warm! You're charming when you buy pastry.

Ryan: Naturally. It's my dominant characteristic.

Emma: Look at that. On the bike lane. A whole cycling club, forty people, leaning into the turn in parallel. At seven in the morning!

Ryan: Fascinating. And useless. I'd be asleep on the handlebars.

Emma: That's not a criticism of them. That's a description of you. A very descriptive one.

Ryan: No disagreement here. Hey, have you seen that billboard? "Monster Truck Night. Rebuild your weekend."

Emma: And the next one. "Visit the Temple of Cheese." Is that a real place?

Ryan: It's iconic. It's a shop shaped like a temple. They embed cheese in everything. We could stop.

Emma: On the way back. For now, drag that seat back, get comfortable, and give me some consideration. I want music, not a lecture on graphics.

Ryan: Deal. One question. Do we have privacy in this car? Does the phone listen to us?

Emma: Ryan.

Ryan: It's a real question. There was a data breach last month. Somebody could utilize it. My whole suite of accounts has an external tag now, and a new installation of every component.

Emma: I don't know what those words mean, and I'm very happy. Navigation, coffee, and you. That's the complex system I need.

Ryan: Then we deploy the playlist. In advance, I apologize for the first song.

Emma: Is it boarding music? Like at an airport?

Ryan: It's a laser show in a song. My earnings paid for this car, so I choose track one.

Emma: Fine. Browse while I drive. And put the memory of your office in the back seat. The optics are better without it.

That is the end of chapter thirty. The computer is off, the doors are locked, the tank is full, and the road north is open.

Keep these with you: "Did you lock the back door?" "Did you turn off the stove?" "Can I get forty on pump three?" "Regular or premium?" "Do you have a restroom?"

In the next chapter, halfway through the drive, they see a small brown sign, and decide to stop.

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