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1-10-97
Well, it finally happened.. I got myself really stuck. It all started when a group of punk high schoolers cut in front of me in a newly purchased smoke-grey '87 Honda Civic. I (naturally) laid on the horn and flashed my lights at 'em. Then, as I passed them, my gf' was bold enough to show them one of her slender fingers...
It was supposed to be a quick trip to take her friend to Hastings (to buy a CD) and then home. It was about 8pm. Well, as we pulled into Hastings' parking lot, the Civic stayed on my bumper, then cut around in front of me, and tried to block me in, etc. The kids jumped out of their car and approached my Scout.. one had a knife, another beat on my passenger window.. ROAR and I was backing up, stuff it into first, romp on it towards them, then veer off to the side, drive around the back of Hastings.. still following me. Hmm.. doesn't look like we're going to Hastings tonight..
I turned back onto the main road, and started heading across town to the police station, Honda Civic and punk kids right on my bumper.. Well, my fiance and her friend decided it might be more fun to take that little Civic on a little 4x4 adventure.. warning bells went off in my head at the thought of taking an unknown trail at 8:30pm, with someone chasing me, three people in the front bench, and the temperature dropping near 0, and the snow starting to fall. So much for listening to common sense.
We turned off on the road Julie indicated, and at the end of the street, it branches off.. straight, left, right. The Honda cut off straight and left, so I jumped on it and went right.. then drove around a large dirt pile on the side of this road, and ended up in what looked like a small parking lot.. Dead End. Uh oh. I knew I was boxed in by the Honda.. but wait, at the very end of the "parking lot" there looks to be a trail heading out.. I neared the end of the lot and noted a large pit in front of me.. a dirt mound went up, then down a good bit, then back up, and then the flat trail in front. A moment to hesitate, put my foot to the floor, and jump over the pit. Oohh, fun! I crashed into the snow on the other side, and kept hauling forward.. my steering was severely hampered. Julie kept suggesting I had a flat tire (*great*).. after going about a 1/2 mile down the trail, I stopped to check on damages. In the distance, we had watched the Honda fly up to the dirt jump, and then slide to an abrupt halt. That dinky little Civic just couldn't follow where my Scout led (In hindsight, the Honda would've floated better than my 3 Ton Scout).
No blown tire.. just 1.5 to 2 feet of snow, with a rather thick layer of ice on top.. and my steering was bad because I had torn through the ice on impact, and had been plowing the whole way! Well, the frame rails were now sitting on the ice.. oops. We're stuck. Luckily, the Honda gave up and left.
Hmm.. I was in my dress slacks and shirt from work, no shovel, no winch, no tire chains, no Hi-Lift... but I had my Ski poles. We started hacking at the ice and rocking, etc.. got a little bit, but not much. Well, that's why I have a CB radio.. a friend on the 2-way called the cavalry.. Julie's Dad and his '95 Chevy Ext-Cab Z71... well, Dad called the cops (those kids did chase us with knives), and a wrecker.
I stayed in the Scout while Julie and her friend walked back to the cops and her Dad. I saw lots of lights behind me.. they would move a little towards me, and then move right back. (They even had the Police Issue Suburban.. but it wouldn't go). Then, suddenly I see some new head lights, and a '95 Chevy crashing down the trail towards me. Well, when her Dad stopped near my Scout, he got stuck too.. "Damn. I knew I should've chained up first!" So, we started digging the Chevy out, and strapping on the front tire chains. That done, we hooked up my tow strap (not a recovery strap) and started tugging. I had hooked the steel tow hook to an oblong slot in the rear frame.. it had worked well before. Well, the only way we made my Scout budge was to get a run and snap it.. it didn't take long to tear up the frame a bit and peel what steel was between the oblong and the end of the frame. We then moved my strap to a different point, and promptly cut the strap on the bumper. Grab Dad's strap.. cut it up.. it didn't even last one tug. Okay, I had another strap in the bed.. one I had broken before. I tied it around the entire rear frame using a square knot, then hooked up to the Chevy.. this worked for a while.
In the mean time, a big 1 Ton Ford wrecker had shown up.. he laughed at first, drove into the snow, and then backed up. Put chains on the front. Try it again. Backup. Chain up all four. Try it again. Nope. Okay, change all four chains to some different style chains, try again. Nope. Lock the hubs. Now try it again. That done, the wrecker slowly backed all the way up to us.. churning up the roadbed in the process (Had my Scout stayed on the road, it may have floated over the ice).
Eventually, the wrecker hooked rear PTO winch up to the Chevy, then left the strap to my Scout, and tugged us both backwards a good ways. Then he drug the Chevy out, came back for me, tugged me some of the way, drug me back up onto the road, and then I stood on it in 4-lo reverse, jumping over the ditch on my way out.
Total time? About 4 hours! We finally left the site around 12:15am on the 10th.. we then went to the police station to file the complaint, and I didn't get home until 2am.. Oh, I had to stop and re-tank-up. Lucky for us, I had fixed the heater a week before, and I always keep my tank at FULL in the winter.
Moral of this story? A couple good things.. 1) Julie has agreed I need to buy a winch!!!!
I'm still working on getting 4" spring lift and 33" tire approval, but.. the winch is a good start. The other good points.. I finally decided that maybe saving my $$$ for other things wasn't such a great idea.. I ran out and bought 4 tire chains for my 31x10.50" BFGs ($60 per pair at Wal-mart) and ordered a 48" Hi-Lift jack, a 2" recovery strap (for her Dad) and a 3"strap for me. Now I just need to find a shovel...
Maybe next time I'll get ARB approval.. :-)
Oh, the wrecker bill? $200!
-Tom