Yeah yeah, I wrecked my car… and another lady’s brand new SUV.

Haven’t really had anything else other than the usual scrapes and bumps.

Funny you should bring it up, as I was thinking about a topic along these lines–the most trouble you’ve gotten into or out of, that sort of thing.

So, with a few months behind me on this adventure (and yes, it is just “me”–I can’t blame this one on the family), here’s one you all might like.

Well, it’s the end of March, and I’m taking a day off to go hunt some lonelies in the northwoods. Decided to take “da wife’s” car–that would be the Sebring (convertible). The roads are fine and we’ve had some big melts; in fact, the woods look bare in spots.

The first of the caches I’m hunting is down an unnammed logging road. The plan is to park on the end, hike about 1.5 mile in to find the cache, and hike back. Left early to get a head start.

Pull up to where the logging road starts, and there is no snow of consequence. So you guessed it. Yes, I know this is the wrong idea, a bad idea, even as I turn onto this road, best travelled by a high-clearance vehicle even in dry conditions, with my low, light, 2wd coupe.

Well, I get over the first hill and there is the snow. I’m already in it. With the thawing it had formed a crust, but I am crunching through. I’m even hitting water pockets. All I know is I do NOT want to be here, but if I stop on these hills, I am stuck. In short order, I am a half mile into the woods.

Finally, I get to a flat, wider spot where the snow is not so deep. I figure, I can turn around and get out the same way I got back in. So I execute my most careful Y-turn, nearly getting the car turned completely around before planting back end of the car off the shoulder. It sinks to the chassis, and the spinning front drive wheels have turned the icy snow to acutal ice.

I spend 15 minutes digging out the car but can’t get any traction no matter what materials I try (and I tried several). With the sun coming up and the snow getting softer, I realize even if I CAN somehow get a tow out here, it has to be fast. But I have NO cell coverage here. Nada.

So I run, literally run, the .5 mile back to the main road, turn the corner and see…roofing shingles. About half a bundle. Must have fallen off a truck or something. So I grab the shingles, run back to the car, wedge them under the drive wheels, and after several attempts manage to get free and get enough momentum to make it back to the main road.

So, that was the dumbest thing I have ever done, which somehow managed to turn out ok in the end.

(Oh, I did walk back down that road to find the caches and CITO the shingles–)

If only I’d been as lucky as Gotta Run…
Unwittingly drove down a snowmobile trail (hey – looked like a road to me!) and got stuck… about 2 miles down in the middle of nowhere, -10F, and cell phone battery on low. Ended up getting a tow truck to get me but not before my husband tried to find me, which he did despite me telling him to just get a tow truck, and then got stuck himself on the way out. Total bill for 2 towed cars $170. Nice.

In addition to that – locked my then 13 month old daughter and my keys in the car while I was about to go look for a cache. Luckily I had my phone with me so the police came and sorted that one out.

Then there was the little bump I had after finding a cache… $100 or so for that one.. and two other near misses getting stuck on ice in March – the only bit of ice to be seen anywhere.

But its fun though!!

So many to choose from but one of my favorites was when I pulled into a small rustic parking lot in winter…even before I did it I knew it was a bad idea. I of course immediately got stuck. I tried and tried to get out of the lot wedging everything and anything I could find under the tires for traction…no luck. I finally gave up and tried to get help by flagging down cars. The only one who stopped was a car with three people in it…two women in their late 60s and a man who was easily 10 years older than them. The man was going to help me push the car out but I insisted he drive it…….OK so myself and the two women in their 60s pushed my car out as the man drove the car. Wow was I embarrassed.

I never did go after the cache….

never any injuries… did get my mustang stuck in the desert on my very first attempt at a geocache… and have been stopped by Yuma Police Department, US Border Patrol, and a warden for the Bureau of Land Management.

if you want a great story… PassingWind has one for you… you can read it here http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=36897&st=7650&;p=1946086&#entry1946086

I’m sure most of you have heard my story by now, but in case you haven’t, I would just like to point out that you need to look up from the GPSr every now and then. 😆

I was caching up in the Eau Claire / Chippewa Falls area and was following a trail. The GPSr said the cache was about 50 feet straight ahead. The trail turned, I didn’t. 😳 I walked right off the cliff. Landed in some nice thorns. Ended up having surgery on the knees last year because of this. 🙄

I guess my name really fits.

Besides the usual stinging nettle welts, berry bush scratches and tick bites we have both been stung by wasps. We now carry an epi pen because Mrs. TE is somewhat allergic. One of Mr. TE’s stings was on the finger near his ring and his finger swelled so large we thought the ring was going to cut the circulation off and he would loose his finger. We were eventually able to get the ring off but it was a few days before he could put it back on.

Mr. TE has fallen more times than not, doing some very acrobatic falls over large boulders, near canyon cliffs, and on trails but none produced serious injuries.

TE