Forever Ago Karl's Pump 'N' Mart Walkthrough (With Screenshots)

Story spoilers: this guide walks through the full Karl’s Pump ‘N’ Mart stop, including the nightmare sequence at the counter.

Karl’s Pump ‘N’ Mart is the second stop of the main story route, right after the opening hike to Woolson Falls. The official in-game objective is called “Prepare for the Road Trip Ahead”, and this page breaks the stop into the same beats you will see on screen: the journal list, the giant pumpkin, Milton’s shop, the memory sequences, and the campsite album. Every screenshot below comes from published gameplay footage, credited in the source note, and each step links to the exact moment in that video.

Arrive at Karl’s Pump ‘N’ Mart and read the objective

The green camper pulls in at dusk, past the lit MARKET sign and the ice box outside. The moment the engine stops, the objective card appears: Karl’s Pump ‘N’ Mart — Prepare for the Road Trip Ahead. Alfred sums up the list out loud: food for the trip, a new road atlas, and windshield wipers “if they’ve got any.”

The van parked beneath the market sign — fuel pumps sit to the right of the shop porch.

Before walking in, open the journal. The Karl’s page holds a sketch of the storefront with a sticky note that reads, in Alfred’s own handwriting: buy food for the trip (easy!), get a new set of windshield wipers, road atlas — and a separate reminder below: “Stop by Karl’s and stock up on some food for the road! (Don’t forget the cookies)”.

The journal spread pairs the shopping note with an old photo of Alfred, Audrey, and a friend.

Meet the world’s largest mosaic pumpkin

Follow the path behind the shop and you reach the pumpkin patch with its own information plaque. The sign declares that, with over 1,260 individual mosaic pieces and a diameter of over 18 feet, the sculpture is officially recognized as the world’s largest of its kind. A past-memory vignette plays here: young Alfred reads the same plaque while Audrey laughs nearby, and a later line explains that Karl has “only the second largest pumpkin in the world” now — a friendly dig at the record.

The plaque text doubles as the source of the pumpkin’s official statistics.

On the porch back toward the shop, a display of Miniature Pumpkin Sculptures sits under a SOLD OUT sign — scenery, not a collectible, so photograph it if you like and move on.

Meet Milton and take a basket

Inside, the young clerk introduces himself: “Oh hello, sir! Welcome to Karl’s Pump ‘n’ Mart. My name is Milton.” He offers a red basket “for your convenience” — take it, because everything you gather goes in it. When Alfred asks for 80 on pump one, Milton handles the fuel while you shop.

Milton runs the counter by himself through the whole stop — greeting, advice, fuel, and checkout.

Work through the three shopping items

Cookies and snacks. The snack aisles are interactable shelf by shelf. At the cookie display, a memory plays: as teens, Alfred and Audrey spent whole afternoons debating chocolate chip versus oatmeal raisin — Audrey was always the oatmeal raisin kind, so Alfred gives her favorite another chance.

The choice that ends a decade-old debate — Audrey’s pick wins.

Other shelves hold chips and cheese-puff bags with their own “Pick…” prompts; grab what you like, since the food item completes with any snacks in the basket.

Shelf prompts let you fill the basket item by item.

The road atlas. Near the paper goods you find the Pocket Road Atlas under a $24.99 special-offer sticker. Milton appears with the full sales pitch: 230 pages on recycled matte-coated paper including a foldable 27” x 39” full-color topographic map, updated just this year. Buy it — the next sections genuinely lean on that paper map.

Milton’s pitch: 230 pages and a foldable topographic map for $24.99.

Windshield wipers. The auto wall on the far side holds the wiper display. Milton recommends replacing wiper blades every twelve to fourteen months and cites excellent ratings in a German motoring magazine that grades on a traffic-light system. Alfred, who has been trimming the old rubber rather than replacing it, gives in: “Just for you, I’m getting a new set.”

The checklist tracks all three items — food and atlas already crossed off here.

Let Milton be Milton

Between items, Milton pitches the rest of the store: postcards “for your loved ones at home,” bumper stickers, a granny-approved cake, and a one-to-five-star satisfaction survey that Alfred answers with a shrug and five stars. None of it is required, but the conversations are where most of the section’s humor lives — and browsing everything matters if you are chasing every achievement, since the published Xbox wording for Shopaholic asks you to buy out the mart’s goods.

Postcards, stickers, and flags crowd the souvenir corner next to the register.

The wall photos and the nightmare

This stop is also where the story digs in. Memory sequences replay visits here with Audrey — milkshakes, PB&J sandwiches, the proposal tease (“You better not. Not here. Not at a gas station.”) — before a nightmare walks Alfred through the darkened store to the wall of old photos. One framed picture shows a young, clean-shaven Alfred with Audrey. He demands it from Milton — “Give me that photo… Now give me my stuff before I forget myself” — and the scene collapses back to the counter, where he finally pays for the basket.

Milton had no way of knowing the couple in the old photo.

The outburst even echoes an achievement name — Before I Forget Myself — whose published Xbox wording, “Stop by the local gas station and stock up for the road trip”, describes this very stop. Steam keeps the condition hidden.

Pay, load up, and log the day

After the nightmare resolves, the present-day Alfred settles up with Milton and carries the basket to the van. The day closes at the campsite: the journal comes out, and you place the instant photos you have taken into the pumpkin-bordered album before the road continues toward the Highway Star Diner.

The album ritual repeats at most stops — it is the game’s memory of the trip taking shape.

If you are building photo count toward the 25- and 50-photo milestones, this stop is a good place to catch up; the beginner guide covers the camera basics. From here the route continues to the Highway Star Diner and then the detour at Sam’s, while the full walkthrough keeps the whole nine-section route in view.

Sources and scope

Steps above paraphrase this section of the Into Indie Games main-story walkthrough and were checked against gameplay footage published by Adventure Vault on YouTube (accessed 2026-10-10). All screenshots are frames from that no-commentary video, used with credit; dialogue quotes are the game’s own lines as shown in the footage. Achievement conditions are hidden on Steam; the wordings quoted above follow the Xbox list transcribed on this site’s achievement pages.