Cold Ankles, Warm Feet

Stories of heroism and bravery are great, however this isn’t one of them, just an annoyed person who spent far too long in a snowy ditch digging out his car.

Heading out when it’s snowing isn’t a great idea unless you really have to.  When my wife forgot to pack her hairdryer after a two week long road trip across the US, I quickly learned a trip to the store was mandatory regardless of the weather or road conditions (so I’m told anyway).  Everything went well, we purchased a new fancy hairdryer and had a fantastic lunch.  Now that I think about it… she forgot her hairdryer and we had to buy a brand new hairdryer, with all the attachments the other one didn’t have, with multiple heat settings, negative ions, ceramic blah blah blah, etc… hmm, did she really “forget”?  Sounds a little too convenient to me.

So the trip back was eventful to say the least.  Roads were horrible and going over 20 mph in town was impossible.  As we maneuver around corners and ruts carved into the deep snow, we managed to make it to the highway with a very impatient road warrior in a 4×4 behind us.  The highway looked decent but there was only one clean lane after the merging lane ended.  My wife and I (four months pregnant by the way.. my wife, not me)  started down the merging lane onto the highway when the road warrior decided it was a great idea to speed up and go around us.  At this point we were going 40 mph and the end of the merging lane was coming up very quickly.  We tried to slow down to let the 4×4 pass however he wasn’t passing us and was blocking us from changing lanes.  We were doing more sliding than slowing down and as our lane came to an end, he was still blocking us.  I’m an experienced driver, especially in bad conditions, but this was a bad day to be on the roads and I knew we were in trouble when we hit a patch of snow just before the lanes merged.  The road warrior slowed down enough so we could move over however we were in the middle of fish-tailing and fighting to control the car.  At one point I think we were sliding sideways, which is fine if you’re not moving however we were still going 20 mph.  At this point I would normally turn the wheel into the turn so we could complete the 180 on the highway however we unfortunately found a dry patch of cement and we flew into the ditch.

After we came to a complete stop and I could see that my wife was okay, I looked out the window and saw the road warrior driving away.  “Thanks Jerk!”  (okay, maybe I didn’t say jerk)

We were stuck.

Armed with a dust pan (I like a clean car) and wearing a nice pair of Mens Clark shoes on my feet, I went out into the two feet of snow and started to “shovel” our vehicle out.  After about an hour, I managed to clear a path behind the vehicle to the highway and was starting on all the snow packed underneath the car.  A few people stopped to ask if we were okay however no one stopped to help.  Finally, when I was on my (cold) knees and reaching under to pull snow out, a truck stopped with flashing lights and it was a volunteer fireman.  He pulled out a strap, hooked it onto the car, and before we knew it, we were out of the ditch.  I was so grateful I offered to reward the gentleman for his help but he refused saying he was only doing his job.  I even offered to buy him lunch or a drink, but he declined again.  This was a true example of heroism.

Because this is a Clarks website, it should be pointed out that throughout the entire digging process, my feet remained warm a toasty.  Hands frozen, ankles cold and wet, but feet warm and dry.

Thanks again to the volunteer fireman that pulled us out.  He didn’t give his name, only his time and some kindness on a cold winter day.