You know us Southerners. A little ice on the roads and we’re a mess.
Believe it or not, I do actually know what NOT to do while driving on ice. I’m not really all that skilled at what TO do.

Like, what do you do if:

The roads are solid sheets of ice, you go through a dip in the road, through “the one” melty spot, get your tires wet, and then lose traction halfway up the hill on the other side? In a standard. Front wheel drive. Little car, little engine.

The answer is probably “STAY HOME.”

If I did, I wouldn’t be sharing this story with you — now would I??

So as I’m driving up the incline I feel the tires slipping, I try to stay on the gas and keep the car moving at a steady speed but slipping changes to spinning and I’m going no where. I didn’t want to add skidding and turning to spinning in place so I stop. Brake. Take a breath and say, “PleaseGodPleaseGodPleaseGodPleaseGod PLEASE help me get up this hill!”

I try again. It’s not working.

“PleaseGodPleaseGodPleaseGodPleaseGod PLEASE help me get up this hill!”

Nada.

I call hubs, “Um? Any advice?” Not really. Not anything that was working. I didn’t want to slide back down the hill because the bottom of the hill was a “culvert bridge” over a creek with no guard rails — I didn’t want to accidentally slide OFF. And besides, when I did let the car slide back, it kept slipping back and to the left. I figured I was better able to be helped it I was still mostly straight and on the road.

So I stopped again.

In the middle of the road. At an angle. Almost but not quite blocking the other lane’s passage.

Nice, huh?

I called my friend, whose house I just left, who had a 4X4 truck and a tow chain and a bag of sand. She was hopping in her truck right away to come help me. Hubs called in (at home with the kids) and I let him know she was on her way and we hung up.

And I’m not kidding that within 30 seconds, another 4X4 truck came pulling onto the little county road coming towards me and stopped to help me.

Praise God for Good Samaritans, right?

He didn’t have a tow chain but he wanted to wait until my friend showed up in case we needed help. So he sat in the other lane across from me and we chatted a few minutes.

And I’m not kidding that within a few minutes ANOTHER 4X4 truck pulled into the county road coming toward me.

Good Samaritan #1 pulled forward and off to the side of the road so the truck could pass by us, but would you believe that he didn’t? He turned off the road right in front of me, backed up right in front of my car as close as he dared and hopped out with a tow strap in his hand and began hooking it to his tow hitch without saying a word.

By this point my friend is pulling up behind us, I mean, I was only a few minutes from her house so it didn’t take long for her to get there. She’s looking at all my help and says “I brought sand! You want it?” Good Samaritan #2 says, “Yeah, we might need it. Let me see if I can get her up the hill without it first.”

Well, it didn’t work, because I still had no traction and he lost traction once the tow strap was taut and I wasn’t going anywhere. So Good Samaritan #1 carried the bag of across the little culvert bridge for my friend so she didn’t have to.

At this point I should mention that walking on this stuff was like ice skating in sneakers!

Well that sand was just the trick and a little sprinkle in front of his 4 tires and my front 2 got me up that hill on the very next try. I was free!!

You’d better believe I said “Thank you” about a million times!! My friend was still looking around at the two Good Samaritans and telling me, “I got here as fast as I could,” as if to say, “Wow, it didn’t take me that long to get here, how did these people even have time to happen to pass by??”

Hopping back in my car I gave it gas gently and was able to get moving on that icy road. It felt so good. And I couldn’t help bursting out in my car, “ThankYouGodThankYouGodThankYouGod!” I mean, God is good ALWAYS, but I was just bursting praise and thankfulness!

Then I remembered the bewildered look on my friend’s face and I just started laughing to myself. God DID answer my initial prayer, “help me get up this hill.” I had kinda meant, like, on my own four tires. But God doesn’t always give us the answer we expect right? He didn’t just send me help. He sent THREE 4X4 trucks, a man with a tow strap and a friend with a bag of sand to my rescue. 😉

~~

I realized after the fact that this post is perfect for Michelle’s Popinjay photo prompt this week, BEWILDERED.

bewilder

1 : to cause to lose one’s bearings
2 : to perplex or confuse especially by a complexity, variety, or multitude of objects or considerations
Obviously I didn’t have my camera handy today (and honestly if I’d been taking pictures while they were rescuing me they probably would have thought I was nuts from the cold exposure. =p) SO. I pulled a few photos from last year’s snowfall to go with it. (I especially thought the SNOW ANGEL was appropriate.) ;0)
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Amber

Hey, y’all! I’m Amber and I wear many hats. I drink a ton of coffee and I’m constantly sweeping crumbs off the floor. After 20+ years of homeschooling, we are starting over at preschool with our fourth, Lil Miss Mouse. She keeps us young and she’s the main reason for my excessive coffee consumption. Drink up!