This was supposed to be a milk run. I didn't even bother to take a shower or put on clean clothes. I was going to run out, take a few pictures of the hot spring, maybe sit in it for a while, drive by a historical site and see if there was anything to see, but only if the road was OK.

My first hint that is was going to be a bad day was the road to the hot spring was blocked. Well, that sucks, but what can you do? It's on private property. And what the heck, I forgot to bring towels anyway.

So it's time for lunch, but it seems I forgot the utensils. Silly me.

So now we're driving home and I think, well, I'll just check the road to the historical site. So I drive up a ways only to find it's a bit more complex than I would like to tackle in the wife's Jeep, so I carefully back down the road.

Not carefully enough.

Now, looking at these pictures, it's like, what the @#$%&! am I doing way off the side of the road? But, nevertheless, there I am, the right front wheel hanging in the air over the creek, and my left rear wheel hanging in the air. With my finger, I can rock the jeep back and forth. I figure it's time to leave.

We carefully get out (more carefully than we backed down the road) and climb a nearby hill. No signal for the cell phone. We start walking down the road, and are met by an ATV rider, who has friends with a truck and a tow strap. He goes off to find them. We wait. Some more folks come by. One of them owns a tow truck company. He advises me to eschew the pickup 'n' tow strap and call him Sunday morning. Mr. ATV comes back and gives us a ride to the main road. He told me his name but I forgot it. He was riding a bright green Arctic Cat- I think it was a 300.

Anyway, on Sunday I meet Mr. SIlver State Towing (783-8692) and his associate at the junction of the road. We slowly make out way to the crash site. They carefully and methodically and professionally string cables in every direction, through the trees, and gently pull the Jeep back on the road. If you look carefully at the picture, you can see the cables going from the tow truck up the hil to the left. An impressive job, at an impressive price. But hey- it took them six hours from the time they left their yard until they returned.

The moral to this story? Don't ever get out of bed.