Sunday, January 2, 2011

Mud Mobile

Before I could drive my dad bought a 1979 Ford Thunderbird. It was a dependable car and got us where we wanted to go. I saw "we" because I was too young to drive and Josh was my chauffeur (by choice or coercion).

Also, about this time my brother and I were introduced to paintballing. It was a fun, raucous sport, that I think I was more into than my brother. For my birthday I had asked my dad to take me to an outdoor paintball arena called "Showdown" located in Heriman Utah, on the west side of Salt Lake Valley. Since going on my birthday I had wanted to go back- it was a lot of fun!

So, one day, Josh, I, and our friends (Steve Swasey and Dallas Fulmer) decided to go to Showdown for some paintballin'!!! We got our guns and our Army Navy Surplus camo outfits and loaded up the "boat" and we headed out based on my navigation skills that I had acquired going to Showdown several months earlier.

As we arrived in the basic area (Heriman- more or less), I seem to have forgot exactly how to get to Showdown. Being determined I pressed onward. I instructed my brother to take us through a residential street. As we came to the end of the street I realized that we were not in the right area, but there was a dirt (or rather mud) trail that continued in what I saw as the correct direction. There was a little mud, but nothing we couldn't handle in the boat with her 4 inches of ground clearance. So I advised Josh to gun the engine to make it across the muddy trail. . . HE LISTENED TO ME!!!

To my surprise me made it through the mud-hole, just to find ourselves staring up a fairly steep mud-hill. We decided it would be better to turn around and try a new route, and somehow we were able to turn that boat around. Now facing mud-hole for the second time we were confident. Josh gunned the engine and mud began flying, tires spun, and the car slipped and slided all the way until we made it . . . a whole 10 yards the the 100 yard long mud-hole . . . we were STUCK!!!

We got out, and with no tools we began trying to dig the car out. We used the car jack to jack the back end of the car up and then pushed it back out of the rut we were stuck in. we would then give it some gas just to find ourselves 1 foot closer but right back in the rut. We repeated this process for 6-7 hours- we were 10 yards closer than we were before- only 80 yards to go!!

At this point we decided to go ask for some shovels from the house at the end of the mudhole. They lent us a shovel but didn't say much to us (they were polygamists- that's another story). We returned to our car with our shovel to find that it really didn't help us much. Exhausted and frustrated we called my dad to come pull us out with the pickup truck. While we waited for him to come, resigned to let the car sit in the stinking mud-hole, we decided to show our frustrations and get some paintballing in at the same time. The car got the worst of it!

My dad finally showed up after we had been there for 9 hours, and pulled us out in about 5 minutes. The poor Thunderbird never forgave us. It was Josh's fault, he should have never listened to me in the first place, besides- he was driving!

2 comments:

  1. I do not think I ever listened to you since. Thats probably why I have been better off. I do miss that car though. It was fun to drive.

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  2. I remember that car, I HATED it! How is it that I have had NO idea of so many of these stories you tell? Where was I?

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