I had to smile Sunday night as I drove down the mountain from Lake Tahoe with chains on my tires.

I ran a race in Moab Saturday. (I shaved 7 minutes off my PB! Yay me!) The drive to Utah was fairly uneventful and I wondered if I wasted money buying chains for my tires.

However, the drive back home to California included road closures. I couldn't get back home via Donner Pass, so I had to go a bit further south around Lake Tahoe. The snow was falling in in cottony clumps. The trees were coated in white and a fresh layer coated the forest floor. If I wasn't in a hurry to get home and a nervous knot wasn't tightening in my stomach, I would have thought it looked magical. Was this road going to be closed too? I had to get home.

I grew up in snow, so I wasn't really nervous about driving in it, just that it was slowing me down. That is, until I realized my car, or more accurately, my tires, didn't like the snow. Fear set in.

I tried to drive up what can barely be called an incline and I started to spin. I wasn't going anywhere. Shit. I needed to get the chains out. I pulled off as best as I could, but that only resulted in getting my front end to the side. My rear was still blocking a bit of traffic.

I panicked.

I'd never put chains on before. My son started to complain. He was tired of being in the car and wanted to play in the snow. "Just hold on. We can't play right now."

I put my hazards on and popped the trunk. A few people commented out their windows as they drove by that I really should get out of the way before I put my chains on; it wasn't safe. I didn't bother shouting back that I couldn't move my car if I wanted to.

My hands started to shake as I held the directions for the chains. It shouldn't be complicated right? Why hadn't I put them on earlier? I could figure this out if I wasn't under pressure to get out of the way. Stupid, stupid, Queen of Denial. Now you are practically blocking traffic and you don't know how to put these damn things on.

Just then, a pick-up truck full of (very handsome!) men pulled up. "Hey, ya like some help?"

"That would be great." Relief.

They pulled off just in front of me, and two of the guys came sliding back to my car with their snow boots on. They had the chains on in five minutes. I watched carefully so I'd know how to do it next time. They had me drive by them so they could make sure all was good. They waved.

"Thanks! You guys rock!"

I really wanted to jump out and give them both a huge hug and a kiss, but I restrained myself. They really saved me, and we didn't even know each other's names. I'd never see them again.

The drive down the mountain was slow, but I didn't mind. I was going to be just fine.

It occurred to me, that in my TBM days, I most likely would have said a little prayer before those men pulled up, possibly before I even took off that morning. I would have been praising god and his tender mercies all the way down the mountain. Maybe the next F&T meeting I would have shared my modern miracle with tearful eyes. God loved me. He made sure I made it off that mountain safe, because I gave him money and tortured myself for three hours every single Sunday.

Instead, I was thinking about that cute butt bent over my tire, wrestling with the chains. I drove down that mountain grateful to the men who took the time to help a mother. They asked for nothing in return.

Glad you're safe. And god bless those wandering Nephites, with their cute butts and all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2011 01:07PM by wine country girl.

I have no idea. I'd never been up there before. I just did what the GPS told me to do. :) Sooo... is Hangtown fun?

Sounds like hwy 80..... Blue canyon is usually the snowline.... But maybe Auburn last week.

Pressing the Like button.

Oh, I thought it was going to be a story about _your_ incredibly cute butt and how you didn't pray for it, you lifted weights for a year - or something. :)

Glad you made it out.

Actually, I do have a cute butt thanks to running, yoga and lots of lunges, but as it's hard to see my own, I enjoy checking out those of other's. :)

So, any phone camera snaps you'd like to share? ;-)

was just one hotel room short of becoming very interesting. Glad you got home safely though. :)

This has to be a lie! If you weren't wearing your Magic Underwear, God wouldn't have sent these nice men to help you. Come clean & repent!

I find lacy thongs much more persuasive in flagging down help. ;)

...automatically gets clicked on by me, I don't care what the rest of it is about! :)

Signed,
Tony the Butt Luvr

A TBM would have declared that they were the wandering 3 Nephites who helped you in your hour of need (and one has a cute butt)!

Stuck on a road with a truckful of good-looking men? You lucky devil!

...religion gets us conditioned to believe any nice thing that happens must have been ONLY because God made it happen. No no, good things never just happen. If we don't please the invisible man in the sky, no good things will ever happen for us and we'll be left helpless and freezing on the side of a lonely road. Sick thinking.

In the decades since I abandoned religion I've had many good things happen -- and a few bad things, too. That's just the way life is. No magic needed.

That's how I felt coming off the mountain. Life is a mix of the awesome and crappy and everything in between.

This experience seems simple enough, but it was an epiphany for me.

It's pure freedom for me to take my life in MY hands and do the best I can with it, crap and all.

I really was scared trying to read those instructions. I'm sure I would have figured it out eventually, but I didn't mind being the damsel in distress that day... ; )