May 19 - what an idiot

I'm very careful not to get too close to the edge of the road during the winter, because the road may be plowed wider than the roadway ... now I can add Spring because the edge of the road may be soft mud ... yes, buried my right hand wheels.

I was on the way back from my bike ride, pulled right to give a 4-wheeler with one of the Reddicks and a small child and went into the soft stuff close to Art's.  I've got 4-wheel drive, right ?  Right.  All the better to bury the wheels.  Great.

He came back (Reddick) and said that he would bring his "big brother".  Well, I wasn't sure what he meant so I started walking home but Gavin and Amanda showed up on their 4-wheeler, gave me a ride back.

I quickly changed and then headed over to Jason's, expecting to get some help from his truck.  Gavin then reported that Reddick had come back with a truck (I guess that's the big brother), so he just gave me a ride to the car.  We used the tow strap and it didn't take much to move the car onto the road. 

They were giving me advice to call for the tow truck since it was buried so far that I might be damaging my muffler but I could see clearance, about 1/4 inch.  With the slightest pull backward that clearance increased and none of the undercarriage actually had mud on it.  I drove home slowly since the wheel wells, wheels, right up to the brakes were full of mud.

Once home, I started washing out the mud but wasn't getting all of it so I removed the rims and did a proper job.  There was a ton of mud all over the brake calipers and lower control arms and small stones between the rotors and metal shields that sounded awful until I got those out.  Nothing was damaged, thank goodness.  I took the car for a run on 522 testing for tracking straight and true and brakes.  All's well.

Sigh.  Hindsight is great.  Had I even gotten out of the car after I started to sink it would have been obvious that I should have waited for a tow before trying to pull myself out.  Even those snow traction pads would have done the job at that point but once you have 5,000 pounds of car sunk into the mud, no way.

The bike ride was good.  The black flies are out and biting though, getting me on the legs and undoubtedly on the scalp. 

I'm looking outside right now, nice and sunny and a pair of Canada Geese in the cove.   They don't have babies yet.

Sandy did some yard cleanup while I was out and expects to do more, I think.  She also wants to do some planting in the garden, potatoes definitely, zucchini and cucumbers maybe.  She won't do much because we'll be away and cannot tend it.

Mike and Jill left shortly after I got back with the muddy car.  Gavin, Amanda, Jason and Lo had this year's inaugural drink in the gazebo. 

Sandy had taken out some salmon for dinner, or rainbow trout but it looked freezer burned so we each did our own fixings. 

Today we might go into Sudbury, not sure.

Onward ...