I didn’t have enough room in my car to bring all the gear on my prep list. The last thing I left behind was a shovel. I figured that my route, plus watching the forecasts, would keep me away from serious snow. I didn’t think that it would be useful for sand as well. Smash cut to this morning, when I tried to surmount an eighteen-inch hump of sand to get back on the road and found my Corolla unceremoniously beached upon it.
I tried digging out the front tires with an ice brush. No dice. There was some vegetation snagged in the undercarriage that I hacked away with a knife. Not enough. After about forty-five minutes, an extremely kind family of French tourists stopped with a spade and some tire ramps. They went above and beyond, even taking me in their RV to flag down pickups on the main road. The younger child was hacking away at the sand with a toy shovel the size of a wallet—absolutely adorable. Eventually, an equally friendly pair of men hooked my car up to the winch on their SUV and tugged me out.
(This is the point where my wonderful, cherished family members will start privately telling me that I need to call AAA next time. I will. Probably.)
I drove back into town to convalesce. The people of Ridgecrest are—no surprise—extremely welcoming. This was a great place to have a rough morning. I had wonderful interactions with everyone, from the waitress at the local diner with a voice like radio static, to the customer at the local game store who invited me to play Magic with his friends (unfortunately, I left my cards at home), to the elderly cashier at the hot dog shack who grandmothered me into drinking more water. This town isn’t as quaint as the Upper Peninsula or as homey as northern Idaho, but it’s another off-the-grid jewel.
Finally, it was time to head back out. The main road to Death Valley was washed out, so I took a bumpy side road amidst a caravan of like-minded folks. The flooding has closed off many of the park’s more distant attractions, so I should be able to experience a good chunk of what’s available during tomorrow’s coolest hours. Tonight, I’m camping for free in the park, the hottest place in the world.
PS: The family that helped me out is chronicling their journey on Facebook and Instagram at Nous 5 En Ameríque. Check them out!
Death Valley, huh?
Let me know when you get to Zabriskie Point (if you’re that crazy).
Just don’t expect the ghost of one of our ancestors to come and rescue you if you run out of water.
Mon Dieu! You were stuck in some sand! And finally some people came along to help you! Deo gratias! Kind of scary I would think. So I guess next time you will make room for a shovel. Glad you got unstuck and on your way, but not before meeting some very friendly and helpful people. People are basically good, I believe. This you have found along your way, and now when you really needed help, they arrived and helped and you were able to get to Ridgecrest where you found more good people. Glad you finally got on your way to Death Valley. Just be careful there with the heat. I hope your car doesn’t mind it. Try to stay indoors with the a/c during the day. When Jeff and I were there, there were some places we could not get to because of flooding. This year or maybe it was last year was particularly bad with flooding. Be careful, be safe. Love, Grandma
As our hero, Thelonious Monk once said: “You’ve got to dig it to dig it. You dig?”