Heh. I got you ALL beat.
Circa 1993 in Utah. Ex hubby and I were on a camping trip, and decided to take the scenic route through the Henry Mountains. No biggy, we had a Gazeteer that showed us all the dirt roads.
At about noon pm, we took a wrong turn. We quickly realized it, and turned around. Only “around” was up a small hill covered in thick, goopy mud.
We spent the next 4 or 5 hours trying to get the truck up that hill. It wasn’t happening. We had to make a decision: try to mountain bike to civilization and find someone to get us out, or stay there and hope that by morning the mud would have frozen.
According to our Gazetteer, there was a ranch about ten miles away. We’d passed several ranches on our way up, right where the gazetteer said they’d be. It was June, and we weren’t certain it would get cold enough to freeze the mud overnight. 10 miles on a mountain bike is no big deal, so we chose that option.
Only… the ranch wasn’t there. The roads were covered in thick mud. We pushed our bikes for a couple hours, then decided we’d better camp as it was getting dark. Luckily we’d brought our tent along. I started to get hypothermic as soon as we stopped, since I was wet from sweat.
Hubby threw me in the tent, warmed up some food, and we spent the night. When we woke up the next morning, the water bottles in the tent were frozen. Did we do the smart thing and head back to the truck? Heck no. We still were convinced the ranch was close.
We ended up biking out to a highway, and flagged down a truck who dropped us in Hanksville.
Hanksville, if you’ve never been there, is tiny. So tiny that they only have one guy - Carl - with a tow truck. He also owned the only hotel. When we explained our situation, he insisted that he couldn’t do anything until morning, so we were stuck renting a room from him.
In the morning, hubby and Carl got up and went to get the car. Carl insisted that he needed another man, so got a friend to come along. They didn’t, however, bring the tow truck. Or even a four wheel drive. They got in a small truck and drove up to where our truck was - about an hour drive.
When they got there, Carl said to my hubby “The ground is frozen, see if you can drive it out.” Hubby tried, and the truck came right out. No towtruck or even a push involved.
Now all of this was partially our stupidity - we were stupid to go up in the mountains at that time of year, and we should have spent the night with the truck to see if the ground would freeze. But we didn’t, and we were prepared to pay for that, no biggy.
What we weren’t prepared for was just how much Carl wanted to take us for. Altogether he spent maybe 2 hours helping us. He took his vehicle, so that makes sense to pay mileage. But he charged us for time for both him and his friend (who did nothing but sit in the car), and mileage, and a tow fee. It came to $500. We protested, but there was really nothing we could do - there was noone else who was willing to help us.
Afterwards, we talked to some of the townspeople, and they told us Carl did this several times a summer. He had a monopoly and he took people for whatever he wanted. Not only that, but he’d routinely claim he couldn’t go for at least a day, so the people would be forced to stay in his hotel.
Beat that!
