Stop in for a cup of coffee

And if the Alt were to totally fail, then YES the entire cars load runs thru the Alt gauge...
Driven like that a few times. Daytime not so bad, except when the bearing siezed. Got lucky a mechanic was able to force a belt on the crank to water pump pulley.
Night time and night time approaching I got lucky all three times. First time I knew I had no chance of making it. Pulled in supermarket and some stranger asks if he can help. Uh, I need an alt. He had one! Went and got it and helped me change it too! Took the old one as a core.