On the way home from work Saturday morning, I decided to take a quick side trip and find my favorite patch of "suburban mud" for a little off-roading fun. Figured I'd get my truck a little dirty before working on the house for the rest of the day. This would be a fine idea if:
• It hadn't been raining off and on for the past three days.
• I had a buddy with another four-wheel drive vehicle to pull me out when I got stuck.
• I had flip-flops that would be easily cleanable rather than getting my tennis shoes all muddy while trying to figure out how to get my truck unstuck.
• If I had some plastic to put down on the inside so I wouldn't traipse mud inside my truck.
• If I had some cold, bottled water to refresh myself after some hard praying and collecting rocks to cram under the tires for better traction.
• If I had better wet-mud tires for my truck.
• If I'd had the bright idea this summer when it won't hardly rain.
I got unstuck after awhile, only to have to figure out a wide course around another mud bog that was just waiting there to get me stuck again. Once on a straight path on somewhat terra firma, I called home to say I'm on my way and relate my tale of mud-bound woe. Little did I know the fun wasn't over yet.
Once on the pavement once again, I tried to disengage the four-wheel drive and discovered the transmission wasn't working. At all. I called home again to say it would be a bit longer before I got home. I found a stick and scraped a lot of the caked mud from beneath my truck, especially the nasty yucky stuff wedged between the IMPORTANT DRIVETRAIN PARTS and the skidplates. I figure the tranny must have just overheated from being covered in mud and me making it work extra hard to get the heck out of there. After about 15 minutes of letting it rest, I put it in drive and the thing worked just fine. Go figure.
I knew this lesson beforehand, but had never gotten this stuck before: having four-wheel drive just means you'll get further before you get hopelessly stuck. I lived it today, that's for sure. Humble old me is going to stick to paved thoroughfares for awhile.
Ahhh...reminds me of when I was young and we used to go 4 wheeling in the mountains in Utah!
And also reminds me WHY I am glad we don't have a TRUCK! Cause, I just KNOW when Hubby finally gets the one he wants, I will hear more then one of these stories...or be party to more then one adventure!
Cool when I was young...not so sure how COOL I am going to find it now! LOL!
Eeewwwww! nasty! I hate dirty vehicles. I am the family car washer, you know, so if something like this pulled up I would throw up my hands and tell hubby to take it in! *LOL*
We used to go mud hoggin' in a jeep with an open top. That was great because not only did the truck get filthy, but we did, too! Back then, you didn't care if the inside got dirty or if you got stuck for hours (as long as someone had beer). Those were the days...
Sorry. The girl in me has to snigger.
I didn't understand much of that...but I'm glad you got out.
Awww, but I bet you had fun. It's nice you had fun with your 4x4 (before being stuck) rather than being the antiseptic, sterile pansy man who's vehicle never leaves the asphalt and you wonder why they bought a 4x4 in the first place.
It's because you left out two important ingredients: the mud...
the Blood and the BEER!
Oh, you men. You all just have to go out searching for wilderness and adventure, don't you?
Ha- what a great memory! I used to borrow my Dad's Jeep to go muddin' all the time! Lol- never got it stuck, though! I did sling mud all the way over the top and down the windshield once!
You reminded me of a great story from 8 or 10 years ago involving my Dad's and brother's Jeeps, a big mud bog, my Camaro, some rain, and a ditch! It needs it's own post, but my blog is down right now! :0( Maybe tomorrow!
Yeah, now that I see the other girl comments- *hangs head* I'm just a tomboy at heart! ;-)