Flooded in Southern California

As many may be aware, So Cal has been hit recently by a number of successive, severe (i love alliteration), torrential rainstorms. Today was the first clear day (in the LA area) in over a week. I had to drive out to Indio. Indio, for those of you who don't know, is way out past Palm Springs. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people out there. I guess land was cheap there at one time, but just like everything else in California, it is completely unaffordable for the common folk these days. Ah well...but I digress.

So I went to call on a horse trainer out there. His facility sits back off the road a ways and you have to take this dirt road to get there. I stopped as I approached the entrance to the dirt driveway. There was pretty much a lake of muddy water guarding the entrance. I took a deep breath, decided that my mighty, mini Honda Civic could in fact make it across and once across I was probably over the worst part. So I ventured in. I let out my breath as I reached the other side and was now safely on the slick, muddy driveway. In some places there were ruts deep enough to trap...well, a Honda Civic! And trap me, they did. I was about halfway down the main drive when I, vainly trying to stay on either side of these deep ruts on "dry" land, slipped suddenly into them and high-centered my poor vehicle. My front tires just spun and spattered mud all over my doors, etc. I tried putting it in reverse, but to no avail. I couldn't believe it! I started to laugh. Here I was, a salesperson, calling on a customer, and I was stuck in THEIR driveway! I got out of the car and walked sadly to the house.

Once there, I found that he wasn't even there. His girfriend was in the house nursing a mass migraine headache, so the two ranch hands offered to pull me out with the tractor. What a sight that was. While hooking up the car, the UPS man drove up on the other side of the fence lining the driveway and simply states, "That's why I DON'T drive up to the house." Thanks, buddy. It wasn't long before we had the little Civic unstuck and I was able to be on my way to meet up with the trainer at the neighbor's ranch down the road apiece.

But the story doesn't end there. I couldn't leave Indio without leaving a mark either. I hadn't done too much investigating in that area, so I decided to drive around a bit and take a look at the horse facilities in the area, maybe drop in on one or two. Well, I picked the perfect one to drop in on. I pulled down a long dirt driveway (one with NO RUTS) and when I couldn't find anyone around, I went to turn around. All of a sudden I wasn't going anywhere, although my foot was on the gas. turns out, the ground wasn't as dry as I had suspected. It was an illusion, I tell you! As I stepped out of the car feeling totally hopeless, both my feet sank into the dry-looking ground. I had no idea what to do. Since I didn't know where I was, I could't call AAA to help me and there didn't seem to be anyone home at the ranch. I tried to stuff pieces of wood under the spinning tires to gain some traction, but was unsuccessful. Finally, a woman came out of one of the ranch houses and offered to help me. She got a hefty rope and the 4-wheeler. We tied it to the same place we had pulled from about an hour before that and back to the 4-wheeler. She went ahead to pull and all of a sudden the 4-wheeler flipped up and she fell off the back. I was horrified initially, but then as the reality of what just happened sank in, I began to laugh. Thankfully she was okay and we retied the rope to the ball-hitch on the 4-wheeler and she pulled me out easily enough. I wanted to die of embarrassment, because here I was trying to solicit their business and I get stuck in their driveway! They didn't even know who I was! I left my business card, jumped into my car and quickly drove off. I don't think I will be going back there for a while.

I think I had a Monday on a Tuesday. The saga will continue tomorrow...