Winter "I Wonder" Land

(So called because it MAKES YOU WONDER WHY YOU ARE HERE!)

So here we are stuck. Sade’s car is in the driveway out back almost in the field next door and I am concerned about taking the Honda out. Sade had suggested I do that last night, and the prospect of having two cars stuck was more than I could handle. The Honda was parked in the garage all warm and dry facing the garage door, but I was not sure it could negotiate the ice field. For all the talk about four-wheel drive vehicles that love the snow, on ice…not so much. I figured I best call someone with a bigger vehicle with four wheel drive and some weight to it. So I went down the list: Called our neighbors and only other person in our development. No one at either cell, husband or wife, but they may have seen who it was calling and thought; “Oh God! It’s those Miller’s stuck in the snow again, don’t answer (Mr. D. brought his snowblower on his tractor down last month to rescue us). Next was the owner of the campground Lee, but again ring ring, no answer. Called another guy I know who built our house. RING RING. Nada. Called the VFD, figuring someone of these country boys has a big ole truck with four wheel drive…”Not allowed to do that. Here’s the number of two tow truck companies.” Called the guy who cuts my grass, he has a big truck, but he had to go to work but knew a guy, gave me the number. RING RING RING.

So this is call #7 and no luck. I finally break down and call the tow truck guy who says his four-wheel tow truck is out of commission (no plates) and all he has is two lift backs but they are only two-wheel, but he might be able to put his four-wheel tow truck on his flatbed and bring it. I told him I would get back to him.

Coletta says, “We have AAA, call them. I do. LSS (long story short) they say if I can get the vehicle closer to the paved road, or plow and salt my driveway (which is ¾ mile from my house to the paved road) they can send someone, otherwise maybe I could find a private firm and they would reimburse me. That was a lot of help. So I call the tow truck guy back and give him directions to the house. It’s now 10:10 in the morning.

At 10:15 the phone rings, and…it the owner of the campground a mile down the paved road. “What do you need?” he asks and I tell him and he says he will bring his tractor with chain, be there in a few. “Can I call you back in five minutes? “ “Sure.” I call the tow truck guy and find he still hasn’t left and tell him I got it covered. I call Lee back and tell him we’re GO! I get my boots on and in about 20 minutes here he comes with this big red tractor. Nice one. He asks if I have a chain and I do and I grab it and lay down on the snow to find a place to hook it as he backs the tractor up to where I got the Sonata stuck. For the LIFE of me, all that is under that car is a big plastic cover that extends from the front bumper to third of the way under the car. No tow hook or anything visible to attach the hook to that won’t rip off with the first tug. “The hell with it!” I tell him. Sade will just have to wait for the snow to melt. “If you could wait until I pull the Honda out of the garage and give her a try, she is four-wheel drive but with the ice….” He agrees to watch and closing up the house, grabbing the cats, and Coletta, I get in the Honda CRV, open the garage door, pull out, close the garage door behind me and head for the driveway. She performs splendidly all the way up the driveway, the half mile gravel road out to the paved (scraped and salted) hard road.

Out of courtesy (and opportunity to give Lee a well-earned tip) we wait on the hard road for five, ten, fifteen minutes. No sign of Lee. So I turn around, drive back down the gravel road to where the house is, only to find Lee SCRAPING THE ROAD AND MY DRIVEWAY!! I jump out, “I’ve scraped it all the way to the front of that Sonata, you should be able to get it out now. And I drove down, got in the Sonata, and played with it for a few minutes to get it OUT of the spot I got her stuck in, just enough to grab the scraped area, and clear sailing all the way out. Coletta followed in the CRV and together we drove to Potomac State to return the Sonata to Sade. Can’t say enough thanks to Lee, for helping us out. Great neighbors are so important. Especially on Mt. Storm. Next time we will take “Mixture of snow and rain” to mean: STAY THE HELL HOME!