have you had your adrenaline rush today?

here's a short little story i like to call 'bri momentarily misplaced her brain and decided to take walton road to class because two inches is not that much snow"
for those of you who don't know, walton road is one of those curvy (and steep, don't forget steep) back country roads, and it's a shortcut. in my defense, the first stretches of the road were deceptively clear, but about a mile down the road, where it stays nice and shady and cold, the road was pure packed snow. i came downhill around a curve and went sliding into a ditch (small ditch). after a moment of panic and the realization i didn't have my cell phone with me, i jumped out of the car and tried bracing my feet against the dirt wall, my back against the rear end of my car, and pushed really hard. nothing (go figure...) got back in the car and rocked it back and forth and got it somewhat mobile, but not out of the ditch, and at this point, my wheels had spun down to mud. a guy drove by though and hopped out, directing me how to aim my wheels to the point where i worked myself out. now came a decision. try to turn around on the snow sheet, and head back to paved safety OR continue down the road of treachery. unknown stranger advised that i head down the road of treachery. and with not too subtle B-rated movie foreshadowing, i asked: "but what about those steep banked curves?"... "nah" he said, "you're through the worst of it right now."
okee dokee-- so i headed down the road as they shouted after me "keep it in low gear and take it slow." i was doing fine until i reached the aforementioned steep banked curves. as instructed, i was going slow, but as it turns out, when going up a snowy hill, you should in fact have one foot on the gas pedal and the other foot on top of that foot. so i made it about 40% up the hill and started sliding into the oncoming lane. luckily, not many people are stupid enough to take walton road, so this wasn't an immediate issue. it was at this point i tried the stepping on the gas option, but since i had already lost my momentum, i just kept sliding. it was then that a guy came out of the house that's right at the curve and offered some help: "you'd better turn back around and go the other way".... after i explained i'd been that route as was not going back, he tried to push me up the hill to no avail, so he headed to the house to put some boots on and really get the job done right. so i sat in the car and watched a pepsi van come up the same route i had just been on, only to get about 10 yards in front of me and start sliding...down down down...and i'm thinking...oh god, this guy is going to slide into me! but he managed to keep his foot on the gas and after 1-2 minutes of burning rubber and splassing snow and mud, he found some traction and slid on up. then my help was back- we tried the up route again, still no luck. finally he determined i needed to back down to his driveway rather than get any worse off. so, car in neutral, we slide down the hill, me at the wheel, he outside the car, giving it some pushy direction. i safely arrived in the driveway. then he shoveled off his driveway while i wandered around my car, poking the snow out of the wheel wells with a stick so i could feel mildy useful. when the driveway (and some of the road) had been cleanly shoveled, we were ready to give it another try -- he offered to drive, so i gladly accepted -- so we ascended up the snowy curves like a bat out of hell, which i definitely could not have done on my own! when we got to the top, my good samaritan hopped out of the car, wished me good luck, and walked back down toward his house.
if there's one thing i took away from this, it's the following bit of wisdom: "you ain't stuck, you just ain't going nowehere just yet." good point ;)