Spinning Their Wheels

The rain of the past few days has flooded the street that provides the lone entrance into our apartment complex (and the complex behind us). The water is up over the curb and covers the sidewalks.

Accordingly, a 4x4 trying to come in here this evening attempted to come over the curb and cut across the grounds, only to get stuck on the curb.

A second 4x4 tried coming across the grounds from the other direction to push him off, only to have it's wheels sink in the mud.

I'm now going outside to watch more of this.

Update: I went outside to view and see if I could help. Sure enough, I was asked if I had a shovel. (Yes, I do.)

The first vehicle was a blue Ford Bronco. It had come over the curb, only to get stuck in the mud just over the sidewalk. That area had been underwater most of the day. It was in deep.

The second vehicle was a white Chevrolet TrailBlazer. It had come over to push the Bronco out, but only had conventional two wheel rear drive. I advised them to push the TrailBlazer out backwards, but the driver wanted to go forward and make a sharp 90 degree left turn at the same time. (No way he was going to get sufficient traction that way.)

Finally, a late model Ford F250 pickup arrived to get the first vehicle out:

Attempt 1 - Chained the Bronco at the front and tried to pull it out. Not only went nowhere, but nearly got the F250 stuck.

Attempt 2 - With the TrailerBlazer driver still wanting to go forward with the turn, the F250 tried to push him forward. Didn't work.

Attempt 3 - The F250 managed to pull the Bronco with the chain backwards into the street. Hurrah!

Some self-important driver nearly plowed into both vehicles, then sped off beeping at them.

Attempt 4 - The F250 driver saw the same thing I had earlier: the TrailBlazer needed to go out backwards. With the chain, he got him out.

The funniest part: some guy with a compact car tried to drive across the lawn and slip out right through where the Bronco had got stuck! We yelled at him to stay out. Sure enough, he got stuck trying to get back to the parking lot.