Stranded

So Linoge leaves an interesting comment on the Out of Touch post.

I am frankly astonished that she would not plan for the potentiality that she might one day get trapped by the weather or stumble across someone who is so disabled. The gear I keep in my car (that needs to be upgraded sometime soon) is there for both me, and for the sake of anyone I might discover who needs it… not a charitable bone in that woman’s body, is there?

Reminds me of a story back when I was living in Portland. I had a roommate from Seattle who had taken a job at LL Bean in Freeport Maine. It was a REALLY snowy winter that year and she had never seen what us Mainers call “Real Snow”. She was working the midnight-to-god-knows-when shift in Freeport (about a half-hour north of Portland, for those who care), and this night it was snowing HARD. Knowing she hadn’t driven in nasty snow before, I asked if any of her coworkers lived near us. She said yes. So I told her I’d drive her into work, and let her get a ride home in the morning. So I poured a big cup of tea to keep me sharp and we saddled up my 4×4 truck and headed north. It was nasty but nothing I, and my truck couldn’t handle…but something that might be a challenge for somebody driving a rear-wheel-drive Audi, let alone somebody from the mild climate of the Pacific Northwest.

She was working in one of the warehouses which is a bit off the beaten path in the woods of Freeport (the main drag of the town is pretty built up, but like many Maine tourist towns as soon as you go off that drag and away from the highway it gets pretty rural FAST. I dropped her off and headed home. Well I hadn’t gone far when the tea was SCREAMING to get out. I didn’t feel like driving the whole way home with my legs crossed, so off a rural road I saw what looked like a country church with a wide parking lot. Planning to pull over there and pee on my back tire away from the road, I left the road.

**CLUNK** never actually looked to see if that WAS a Church or not, but I did see that what I THOUGHT was a driveway was in fact the ditch on the side of the road that had filled with snow and drifted perfectly flat. Well there was my place to pee, and after my mind was a bit clearer I planned my escape.

My truck did an OK job at making some progress, but because my wheel was cut my entry path was a curve, and my visability on the dark road was almost nothing. I backed up until the snow was well over my tailgate and I couldn’t push any further.

I walked the few feet back to the road and called AAA on my cellphone. That was an amusing call because I had NO idea what road I was on, and just gave the LL Bean Warehouse as the nearest landmark. They told me the local driver could probably find me. before I hung up a man in a full-size Chevy truck stopped and asked if he could help. I told AAA I’d call them back if I needed them but we were gonna give it a try.

This guy had towing straps in his truck so we quickly hitched the straps to my frame and he popped me out without too much effort. I thanked him, and he pretty much said it was nothing, and it could have happened to anybody, and we parted ways.

Now here’s the interesting thing. While I was standing in the snow many people drove by me. It was shift change at the warehouse so there was a good bit of traffic. Only this guy (who was prepared for anything) stopped.

Now I’m betting with a little looking the AAA driver could have found me, and I had cell reception so I could have called my Dad to at least pick me up and take me home and let me deal with retrieving my truck in the morning. I also had blankets, I had some tea and was obviously well hydrated, and I could always melt snow with my truck’s heater (only after clearing the snow from my tailpipe! Remember Carbon Monoxide poisoning when running a vehicle in a bad environment) for more liquid refreshments. I wasn’t more than 5-10 miles from the main drag and I could have hiked out with little effort if need-be.

Still how many people just drove by. They were probably on their way to work and didn’t want to be late from helping some yokel, or might be worried I was some predator staging a trap. Bubba in the truck probably had a gun on him…if he didn’t he’d be silly. I was unarmed except for a pocket knife because this was before I got my first guns, and still hadn’t warmed up to the whole concealed-carry thing.

I will say in the other driver’s defense I hadn’t run out of options yet so I wasn’t making any distress signals quite yet. But one must remember it can happen to ANYBODY and ANYWHERE. I thought I’d just be making a quick jaunt up to freeport, and I’d be warm and in my bed before I knew it. I was wrong.

What I wasn’t was afraid. It sucked being stuck, but in the end if I had to hunker down for the night I knew I’d be fine, and the chances of THAT were low because I was on the horn with AAA.

The antis talk about “Freedom from Fear”, well I’ll say, having options and plans are indeed freedom from fear. Be prepared, for it is your weapon against danger, and its brother Fear!