What Do We Do?

Yesterday we got a bee in our bonnet about going out to eat (rare occasion these days). So, we called Lynn, since she is alone this week, and asked if she would like to eat out with us. She agreed and asked if we would like to go to a free movie. Only problem was, the movie didn't start until 9:55 so we knew we would be getting in late, but there are worse things, so we agreed to go. It was a rainy night (badly need rain), 34 degree temp, so we drove home and found it was also raining in our neck of the woods. We started up the mountain (last mile home) and after we got about 0.2 miles of the way we began to slide and totally lost traction. The temp was still 34. It seems though that the rain was freezing on the ground and there was a nice sheet of ice we would have to drive through to get home.

We maneuvered our selves off the highway and into the ditch on the right side of the road and realized we were, without a doubt, stuck with the car leaning at about a 30 degree angle toward the bank. Wayne decided to try and walk home along the ditch, where the ice seemed less ominous, and I was to wait in the car as I did not have on boots and he was sure I would fall. The plan was to bring the truck down the mountain and we would ride back together. Both of the flashlights in the car had dead or near dead batteries. Not helpful. The car was running, but not on a full tank of gas. In fact, the first thing we were going to do the next time we drove the Prius was go get gas. I was warm so I settled down for the wait. A few minutes later here comes Wayne back to the car. The road was extremely slick and our truck tires not steel studded. He did not feel he could maneuver on this slick road to be able to come back to get me.

Hummmmmmmm, we said to each other. Now what do we do? We thought and thought. It was 1 AM. No neighbor was safely reachable to try and walk to their home. Our only cell phone (mine was at home) might not work as signal is extremely poor on our mountain. We gave it a shot, however, and low and behold, the phone worked! First plus for this event. We called Lynn and asked her to call the Haywood County sheriff with details of our crisis to keep us from using up our only phone's battery. The sheriff's office dispatch called us back to get directions on exactly where we were and told us the highway patrol would be there momentarily. He said to keep our lights on so that we could be easily seen. We waited and waited and waited. No HP car could be seen, with his lights burning brightly, coming to our rescue. As we sat in our car feeling totally helpless, we realized that we had never been in this type of dilemma before in all the 49 years we have known each other. Lynn called, or maybe we called her, about this time to get/give a progress report. It was now around 2 AM. While they were talking, a call came through. Wayne hung up and took the call. It was the sheriff's office dispatch telling us the fire department would be there shortly. We hung up the phone and were puzzled about the change in our rescue plans. We know there is only a volunteer fire department. It's not like a grand fire truck would come barreling up the mountain, scoop us up in their vehicle and take us home.

Suddenly our car stalled as if it was out of gas only the gauge said otherwise. It would not crank and stay running. Ummmm, there goes our heat and lights. We hoped help would come soon.

Again, we waited and waited. The dispatcher called back and said a fireman was on the way. In clarifying directions, we became aware that the firefighter would be coming from up the mountain instead of the way we had come and we knew our road had no other outlet. It must be a neighbor who was the volunteer fireman. Wow! Soon we saw headlights approaching from above but then they stopped coming and even disappeared. Suddenly we saw someone approaching with a flashlight. It was our fireman and hhis name was Sean. WE had never met him or his wife but we knew their house well because they were the only neighbors on the mountain who had Hummers. Yes, I said Hummers. He and his wife both have a Hummer. Hers is a small one and his is one of the biggies. Get this, his wife's hummer (the one he chose to bring down to get us) could not navigate on the ice any further than several tenths of a mile from where we were. He said the ditches on the left were better to try and walk in than the deeper one on the right but even the ditch on the left was slick. He held onto me firmly and we worked our way to his vehicle in what seemed like it took forever to do. Wayne was struggling along behind us and slid down several times but did not get hurt. We all got soaked as the rain was still coming down fairly hard. I had on my full length down coat and it kept me very warm in spite of getting wet. Wayne had on his leather jacket. Our hands got very cold such that our fingertips hurt for some time. Finally and with some difficulty, we arrived at our house. Our driveway that adjoins the apron of concrete coming out of the garage was iced over and Sean had difficulty getting his car up to the garage doors. He asked to leave his vehicle at our home and we had him park it in our garage where our Prius usually parks. He would not stay the night with us but instead insisted on walking home. He said he and his wife would come up in the morning and get his vehicle.

By this time it was nearly 4 AM and we were exhausted, unnerved and ready to crash. We slept well and hard and when we got up, the sun was shining, the temp was above freezing and all was right with the world. We hope we never have to go through such an ordeal ever again.