In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm going to change Tuesday's Bad Dates around a little bit, and tell you about a good date I once had. (As hard as it is to believe, I actually have had a couple good dates in my life)
Back when I was living in California, I started dating this guy, M. We had been dating a few weeks when he bought a new truck. He was very excited about his new truck and suggested that we try it out by going up to King's Canyon National Park for the weekend.
We took the long drive out that weekend. We had a couple great hikes and saw some nice scenery and ate some good food. On Sunday, before heading home, we decided to drive down a dirt road to Muir Grove and see some sequoia trees. The road was pretty rutted out and treacherous and it hadn't been plowed. Which was absolutely perfect! (We were trying out his new truck, after all)
Well, on the way back from the grove, we came to a spot in the road where the snow got a little deep and the grade was a little steep. The truck got stuck for a bit, so M put it in reverse, dropped it into 4WD, and started driving forward again...really fast. He was almost flooring it. He'd drive forward until the truck stopped -- smack -- against the snow, put it in reverse, and then drive forward again at break-neck speed until we --smacked -- up against the snow. Over and over.
This entire time, I was yelling at him: "WHAT are you doing? That isn't how you drive in snow! You're going to get the truck stuck!" Which, of course, we did; we finally reached a point where we -- smacked -- against the snow and the tires just spun. M tried to go in reverse and the tires just spun some more. He kept spinning and spinning until the truck slid sideways into a huge rut on the side of the road and then we were completely and totally stuck.
M was devastated. He looked like he just wanted to disappear into a hole in the ground. To top it all off, we were out of cell phone range so we had to walk up the road about 2 miles to call a tow truck to pull us out.
On the drive home, M was absolutely silent. No matter how I tried to engage him in conversation, he wouldn't talk. When we stopped to get some food, he said, "Well, I guess we won't be going out again."
I asked him what he was talking about.
"Well, I tried to take you out for a nice weekend away and I ended up getting the truck stuck and exposing you to a toe truck guys who looked like a convicted felon."
"Listen, M", I said, "That's not the first time I've ever gotten a truck stuck and I'm sure it won't be the last. Let's take a detour down a dirt road and I'll teach you how to drive in the snow."
We dated for 6 years.
Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!
1 comment:
that's bananas! Everybody gets stuck sometimes. and he didn't have enough courage to think you could ride it out? poor fella.
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