After my "morning" coffee, breakfast and stuff we loaded all three dogs in the car and drove out to the only place within miles with a pretty fair patch of Indian Paintbrush plants. It will be important to note that we drove right past a couple of Bluebonnet Patches within easy reach of paved road and flat, dry parking.
Oh, and "morning" is in quotes because after a lifetime on the swing and graveyard shifts I do not get up until 11:00 AM, just in time for Rush.
As is our usual custom Linda Lou drove while I sat in the backseat with Cochise' Apache Princess and Bingo. Bingo demands a lap and CAP just wants to get in the front and help drive, and also stick her head out the window. That's the disadvantage of the van, no back windows a dog can stick her head out.
So Linda doesn't like to be in the car with all three dogs unless I'm in the back controlling the beasts. This is important to the story.
So we drove out to the place with the Indian Paintbrushes and tried to get within an easy walk. This is where it became a disaster for which I will catch Hell for until either I or Linda Lou dies. You see, I forgot what a city girl Linda Lou is. Instead of taking over the driving I simply told Linda Lou to stay on the grass and drive around the mud and angle toward the flowers.
So she ended up driving into a muddy ditch. Again, this is my fault. Linda Lou doesn't even like dry dirt roads, much less empty fields. So, there we were in our minivan buried to the front axle in the mud, a hundred yards from the public road and further from the driveway we came in on. So we did exactly what self reliant Americans have done since the Great Migration of the 1800s, we got on the cell phone and called for road service. We then settled into waiting. Linda Lou, with her bad knee made no attempt to walk to the wildflowers, proving again who is the smartest person in that car. I, on the other hand, did.
This, of course, after CAP led me on a wild chase through the for sale lot and then the flea market before a women came out to see what was going on with her beautiful little Corgi. I can never remember which kind of Corgi has a long tail and which a docked tail but this was one with a docked tail. Anyhow I caught CAP when she got ready to eat the Corgi and then we walked to the wildflowers.
Please forgive the poor pictures, one I couldn't see the little pic on the back of the camera, I miss the viewfinders on conventional cameras, you looked through the little hole and you could see in bright sunlight. Unlike these electroniwockle ones.
The other drawback was the having to hold the lead with one hand and work the camera with the other.
Meanwhile the wrecker driver showed up and decided he could not get the truck in and out so, there we were.
Enter Francis and her golf cart. Francis is the manager of the big new flea market next door to the disaster. She started calling people for us, plus took Linda Lou to the air conditioned office. First some guy in a pickup truck, no joy. We did, however, manage to pull off the muffler when the chain went tight against one of the supports.
Next try worked. She called someone else who came out, started the backhoe, drove it to us and dragged us to pavement. We then started the car and drove home with the muffler in the back of the van. This is the odd thing, I've never been under the van (although Linda Lou would have cheerfully thrown me there yesterday, but that van must have two mufflers because it was not much louder than before. The most remarkable thing? The guy that dragged us out only wanted fifteen dollars to pay for his helper's time.
It's a cloudy, rainy day today but maybe, just maybe, when the sun has been out for a couple of days I'll take the beasts to the flat place with the Bluebonnets. Or maybe we'll never leave home again.
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