Puzzler Answer 9623, Louie's borrowed truck

Ray: Some years ago when my son Louie got his driver's license, he asked to use my truck. He wanted to take a trip to the next town over to visit a friend of his, and I gave him my keys with the admonition, "Don't drive very far because you are not an experienced driver, and I certainly don't want you driving on the highway or out of state or anything like that." And he said, "Don't worry, Dad." Now, being the trusting soul that I am, I didn't bother to write down the mileage or anything like that. I am a fool, and this is the only time I made that mistake. Now, that night he returns and hands me the keys and I go out to the truck and I get inside, of course. And I didn't see anything on the seat or anything like that. It was dark and I didn't turn on the headlights, therefore I didn't see the 5,000 bugs that were smashed against the windshield. But I got in and I started the engine. And again, I had no idea what the gas gauge had read. Like I said, I had no idea what the odometer had read. I started the engine and sat in the truck for maybe a half a minute with the engine running, and I knew in an instant that he had gone much farther than he had said. Much farther from home. The question was, How did I know? And the hint was the Grateful Dead.

Tom: The Grateful Dead. So it had to do with the tape player.

Ray: When I got in, I turned the engine on, and the tape was playing, the volume was turned up all the way, the song was "Friend of the Devil," I believe. I eject the tape, and upon ejecting it, it goes to default mode, which is the radio. And the radio is tuned to a station that we don't get in Boston. 'Cause what I hear is static. And I realize that he couldn't have had the radio tuned to that station, if he was just going two towns over. He had gone to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. Got a tattoo.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]