Last week I said that everything that was worthy of printing, was in the letter; however, your mom said that I left out some news that you may have wanted to hear. It pains me to retell the story, because I lived it once, and telling it will seem like I am reliving it all over again. It goes like this:
On Monday night, April 5th, at 10:45 PM, I am snuggled in my bed just drifting off to sleep when the phone rings. On the other end is your mom telling me that she is worried about getting home from Melanie’s in my car in the snow storm that we had had that evening. It was pretty much done snowing by that time of night, but we ended up with nine inches of wet snow; good for the water supply, bad for cars. I told your mom to go north on Tyler and then head down to Harrison where numerous cars had likely been traveling.
So, I lay back down to continue my slumber, when I start wondering how long it should take your mom to get home. I waited, and waited, and waited some more; for ½ hour I waited, but she never came home. So I am thinking that she is probably stuck somewhere and without a phone. So I got up and called Melanie and asked her how long ago her mom had left, and she said that she hadn’t left yet, so she gave the phone to her. I am beside myself, as here it is nigh on to 1 hour past my bedtime, and I am still awake, and your mom hasn’t even made an attempt at coming home. So while I have her on the phone, I tell her if Country Hills look too bad, she should go up to 4600 and take Taylor across and get to the house that way. I also told her to make sure that she turned off the Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC) button when she was either stuck or about to go up a hill, as by default the car will brake if slipping and sliding are detected to help maintain vehicle control. With that little bit of info relayed, I figure that I can go back to bed and finally get to sleep.
As I was laying there all peaceful and just drifting off to Never-Never Land, the phone rings again; this time your mom says that she is stuck in front of Melanie’ house. Stuck In front of Melanie’s house? What the? If you are going to get stuck, at least get more than a few feet from where you are starting! She tells me that she called Brad and he was over there in the FX and that maybe he should come and get me so that I can drive the G home. At this point, I am so wound up I can’t sleep anyway, I told her to send him over. I got up and got dressed and proceeded to wait FOREVER for Brad to show up. I am thinking that he must be stuck, as I have been in an out of the house numerous times and he should have been home by then. But I am thinking that it can’t be too slick, because I keep seeing all these little cars buzzing up our street and none of them seem to be having trouble. Every time I see some lights coming up the street, I go outside only to see another little car passing merrily on its way. Finally, I call Brad’s cell phone, and he tells me that he is just turning up Country Hills. So I go outside AGAIN, and wait what seems like an eternity and he still doesn’t come. Finally, he pulls up in front of the house and he said that he had to wait for someone to get unstuck from in front of Jake’s.
Okay, I am finally on my way to rescue my car! The only problem was that it was so slick that Brad drove like only 10 miles an hour (another reason that it took so long for him to get home). Due to the slow speed, it took another eternity to finally get to Melanie’s house. Once there, I could see that your mom was stuck sideways in Melanie’s driveway gutter. The front end of the car was just barely past the north edge of the driveway curbing. So, after getting the windows cleaned off and defrosted, I put the car in reverse and backed into the middle of the road. Holy crap! How hard was that? After spinning just a bit as I started to go north, I backed up a little farther and tried again. This time, I am off to the stop sign and around the corner heading toward Harrison. I have these visions of driving home and pulling into the garage and getting in bed before your mom and Brad are even on Harrison. At least that was the fantasy.
As I am heading south on Harrison, I am feeling pretty confident in my fantasy – until I start up the hill by the old hospital. At this section of road, I am fishtailing all over the place, as it feels like I am on ball bearings. But, I make it to the top of that hill and continue toward Country Hills. As I get closer, I can see that the street has not been plowed yet and not enough cars have been on it to clear a very good path, so I use the advice that I gave your mom and continue to 4600. Along the way, the light and the Dee Center entrance is red, but I figure that I am going to have to run it or I will be going too slow to make it up the next little rise in elevation on Harrison before I get to 4600. Fortunately there are no cars at the intersection, so I sail on through. Now as I start going up the last bit of hill to 4600, I can see that I will have to stop as the light is red and there are cars in the intersection. Once the light turns, I slowly make the corner and head up the hill on that road. The problem is, I am going so slow, that I can only get to Old Post road before I spin out. So I back up enough so that I can turn around, and head back toward Harrison. Once on Harrison, I figure that I will have to try Country Hills as it should be easier as I will be turning right instead of the left that I would have had to make if taking the turn earlier.
As I approached the intersection, the light was green, so that was a bonus. As I made the corner, I could tell that I would be lucky to get past Gull’s and get to the relatively more gradual slope of the road. If I could make it that far, I should be able to get the rest of the way home. But, I made it only to Pierce’s first driveway, and I wasn’t going to get any farther. At this point, I am thinking Plan C; which is to go through the Burger King lot and past the Weber State Credit Union and onto the road that goes past the Alumni Center. As take several tries to get pointed down the hill in front of Jake’s, I know that Plan C is the only other option for getting home. I have tried coming in from the south, hitting our road head-on and now an assault from the north is do or die.
As I get to the campus road, I am rejoicing as a plow has been through there. I am able to keep decent speed as I approach Taylor only to see the plow went to the stadium and not along Taylor, but I am thinking that Taylor is only a gradual slope, so I make the turn and proceed to get “all” the way to Oyler’s. No problem, I will just back up toward the stadium past the dip and get a bit of a run. Backing was no problem as I was in the plowed area. I started back up Taylor and had pretty good momentum even though I was fishtailing pretty good all the way up the road. It was a real challenge to keep the car in the center of the road, as the crown of the road kept trying to push me into the gutters. Once you are in the gutter, you are pretty much done.
As I approach the corner, I can tell that I am not going to make it, as I start to slide to the area that Brad used to park the Stanza. I am thinking that I could just leave the car there, but I figure that with my luck, someone will plow into it. So there I am 50 feet from being home free and I am out of options. So I back up and get back to the center of the road and try again. Still I can’t get any closer to the corner, so Scott and Brad come out to give me a push, but still I can’t get any closer. At this point a car that was waiting to see what I was doing goes around and across the intersection with no problem. Then another car pulls up and stops, also waiting to see what I was going to do. I could see who I thought was Scott standing in the road, and I am telling him to move to the side so the car could go around, and he doesn’t budge. So I say it a little louder, and he still does not budge but seems a little confused. Then I take a better look and I can see that I don’t know who is standing there, but some guy that is just waiting for me to get situated so that he can help push.
So now with three guys pushing, I am able to make the corner and turn into the driveway and then into the garage. While I was out trying different approaches to getting home, Brad had time to shovel my whole side of the driveway. So much for my fantasy of getting home first.
The problem is that the G is absolutely terrible in snow. Since I have had it, this is the second time that I could have used four wheel drive. It was an option when I bought it for “only” $3,000, but I figured I would save the money, as usually the roads are plowed and sanded and it would be rare that I would need four wheel drive.
By the time that I got into the house it was 1:40 AM and I was still so wound-up that after I got into bed, I lay there for what seemed like an hour before I finally drifted off to sleep. The moral of the story? Keep your mom out of my car!
Nathan loved dad's telling of this story, and I'm sure it brightened his day. Thanks for letting me share it dad!
5 comments:
I can hear him telling it as I read it! What a hoot!
That is a great story!!!! I loved reading my Dad's letters when my brothers and sister were on missions. The Richey's sure do know how to tell a great story.
I agree with Valerie. The Richey brothers know how to tell stories. I was laughing throughout the whole thing. Loved it. Thanks for sharing!
That is hilarious.
Too funny! Dang the snow and dang the non-four-wheel drive vehicles. Maybe your dad will want to remember this story before next winter hits! Very funny. So glad he made it home. I could just imagine how frustrated he was!!
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