Bad truck luck

Restful as Wimberley was, there were also a few moments of excitement. A curious, single vehicle accident occurred on the hilly and isolated road leading to our holiday rental house. A truck driver hauling a full load of sand chose the wrong gear to attempt a curving and fairly steep ascent. He tried to shift gears and the load pulled him straight back down the hill. Straight, in this case, meaning backwards into a gully and blocking most of the road.

Patricia and Ant Candy came upon the scene before the tow truck arrived. Patricia was driving down the hill and emergency services staff directed them to proceed slowly around the truck. There is a short, scrubby drop on both sides of the road and Ant Candy freaked right out. She leaned out the window and shouted to the policeman "Can you do it for her?"

The officer seemed unimpressed by the degree of her panic and waved them on with a reminder to go slowly. Patricia, of course, navigated around the truck without any ill effects, apart from Ant Candy having aged 5 years in 5 minutes.



By the time they returned to the house and described the scene, and I got out of the hot tub, grabbed my camera, and made it to the scene, the rescue operation was in full swing. The trapped truck was being harnessed to the biggest tow truck I have ever seen, operated by the biggest tow truck driver I have ever seen. First they braced the trailer to the tow truck and dumped the sand into the gully. Anyone in Texas who wants some free landscaping materials can contact me for the precise location.

They dropped the trailer back down and the giant tow truck driver moved the giant tow truck around to haul the stuck truck up out of the gully. They dragged it a short distance, then decided to raise the trailer again to dump out the last of the sand. Unfortunately, this time the load was unsupported and the trailer came back down at an angle, getting stuck on its own support posts.

The driver of the stuck truck, who was having a really bad day, then had to hit the post with a hammer until he knocked it far enough to lower the trailer.

Mega tow truck man slowly hauled the stuck truck out and it rumbled away in a thick cloud of humiliation. The driver's head was hanging so low that I feared he might end up in another gully before too long. The whole operation took over an hour and a half in full sun, oppressive heat and one million percent humidity. Tow truck man alone probably lost my body weight in sweat, admittedly a very small percentage of his total body mass. Somehow he managed to raise his bulk back into the cab of the tow truck, possibly with the use of a winch, and drove off as well.

Overheated and sweaty myself, I wandered back up to the house, jumped in the shower and gave thanks to the employment gods that I don't have to drive a Texan tow truck.