Actually, that is something I meant to ask earlier...is it just mine that has a segmented fuel line rearward of the engine? Like I said in my original post, I had assumed that it was all metal from the tank to the engine bay until this happened, hehe.

When I pulled off the broken rubber piece it turned out that the actual gap between the two segments was 1/8th or maybe 1/4th inch at most. The two metal ends that the hose connected between looked clean cut and round, so if some rot was cut out, they did it didn't use metal shears.

Either way, crisis is averted now and I'm back on the road with her. It doesn't look bad enough that the whole works needs to be ripped and replace just yet, so it's all good. :)