On our recent trip to Colorado we experienced a bit of difficulty with the RV. We were trying to find the cabin in a very rural area that our family was staying in. In the winter the only access you have to these roads is by way of snowmobile. We quickly discovered that we were headed in the wrong direction and decided that we needed to turn around. Yea, not such a good idea. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to own such things! The road was very gravelly and they were just steep enough and the RV weighed just enough that keeping traction was no easy task. This is what got us into trouble. We were having a hard time getting traction and the wheel just kept spinning out and we were trying to keep from going down a pretty steep ditch on both sides of us and in the front of us. It didn't feel too bad until I got out to try and guide Nate forward so he could come as close as he could to the ditch ahead of us to try and avoid going in the ditch on the side of us. As soon as I opened the door and tried to get out I knew we were in serious trouble. There was no getting out of this and we were leaking a ton of fluid. I was worried that we had punctured a line but it turned out that it was just the overflow tank letting out all the stored water. I told Nate that he had to come out and look because we were in critical condition.
Miracle 1. There was 1 bolder holding the entire thing up and from tipping over. We stopped at just the right moment or we would have tipped for sure. It is hard to tell from the pictures just how tipped it was. While Nate was trying to figure a way out of the mess we found ourselves in, I walked to the next cabin and there were several men that just arrived for a biking event. I asked for some help and one of the guys drove Nate to a wrecking service that was just up the road a ways to get some help. That one ended up being closed so he drove him 6 miles up the road and dropped him off at a lodge so he could make some calls to find help then he came back to tell me where he dropped him.
Miracle 2. There was no cell service where we were. None! Our family was waiting for us and we were now lost and had no transportation. I discovered that if I held my phone up to the sky there was just enough service to get a txt msg out and then prayed that our family had their cell phones near and they were able to receive the txt. I had no idea where we were or how to describe how they could come and find us. All I told them is that we were close and we were praying. That was all the information they needed because they found us! Turns out that the cabin I went and asked for help at was connected to our families cabin by a foot bridge over a creek. They were back to back but on different streets. We could have just about thrown a rock from where we were to their cabin if it weren't for the forest. My sister-in-law took the kids and walked them over to the cabin so they could play while I stayed and waited for help with my brother-in-law. Him and his brother-in-law were trying to figure out the physics of trying to get our RV out of the ditch without it tipping over.
Miracle 3. While I was sitting there with the kids and praying for our family to find us one of the locals drove up and after giving a whistle of "boy that's a fine predicament you're in there" he offered up what I thought was information only to make me feel more stupid. He said, "it's too bad you didn't just go straight up that hill instead of turning because it is a loop that takes you right back down to this road just a ways up." At this point I was trying to keep from crying in front of this man so I was thinking that information was useless now. He offered his luck and told me about the wrecking place that Nate was already on his way to. When the wrecking truck finally showed up an hour later the guy got out of his truck and started scratching his head because he didn't know what kind of angle he could get to get this darn RV out of the ditch because the RV was blocking the road so he couldn't pass by to get to the other side...... Enter "useless" information...... I had a sudden remembrance of the conversation I had with the nice gentleman about the road being a loop. The truck could back up down the road to the entrance of the loop and come around on the other side of the RV to get the proper angle for pulling us out. My brother-in-law hopped in his vehicle so he could guide the truck to prevent him from getting stuck as well.
The wrecking service hooked up a loop chain around the axle and the wheel and just pulled the RV right out of the ditch and onto the road. Nothing broke in the process and we were off on our merry way with 400 dollars less than we started with. We are pretty lucky that no one was injured and there seems to be no damage to our beloved RV. We got a great story out of it and met some really nice people along the way. Most importantly we can say that miracles do happen. They happen all the time. Sometimes you get a few little events that turn into one overall success story and sometimes you get one big event. When things happen that should have or could have turned out a different way you need to give proper credit and recognize things for what they are, miracles.
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