Let me paint the scene.
Windows down, good driving music playing. 40-50mph on dirt road drifting certain corners a bit. Simply the most fun I have had driving in a long time. This all while keeping up with a 4x4 dodge truck ahead of me to keep pace. The truck continued straight and my journey called for a right turn. At the beginning of the road there was a sign that said road closed. I had already gone 40 miles and I figured I would take it easy and see why exactly the road was closed. This was my first mistake.
I continued on and the lodge was just a bit further. I zoomed over some snow which was actually pretty thick mud due to the recent "warm" temperatures. I then realized that I had found myself between the tough and the impassable.
I backed up as much as I could and I sped towards the previous patch of snow / mud and as you would have guessed. I got stuck. Struggling trying to get my car free just made things worse. The mud wore both my car and I down to a point that I was forced to surrender. This was after almost 2 hours of attempts.
Cold and coved in mud I walked to find signal... None and none. I probably walked up to 2 miles until finally I found a spot that had "3 bars". I called 911 just over 60 times until a clear enough message was sent that I was in need of help.
I then walked to my car for the local officer to arrive to assess the situation. About 30 minutes later an officer arrives and he didn't look happy right away... I don't blame him, I don't want to be muddy either. He attempted to push me out of my rut but no luck. After asking for my information he told me that he was going to write me a ticket for not following the road sign. He called a tow truck and made sure that I knew that I would have to pay for that. After awhile he came back and let me know that he cut me a break... Instead of a $750 dollar ticket I would just have to pay $120.
Near 9pm Tom roll up in his old tow truck. He's what you would expect, overweight, racist and with only 2 of his buttons buttoned at the bottom. Long story short we got my car out of the mud with just scratches...
At the end Tom told me how much it would be.... $400. $325 of that was just to drive there and back.
I feel ripped off, stupid and more broke than before... One day I'll catch that break that everyone else has had a taste of.
Image shot with the new Nikon D800. It is a 30 second exposure at iso 1600. The light to the left is the polices officers headlights.