Sep 26
It rained all night and we were very happy that we dismantled the screen tent the day before. We left in the rain and drove towards Sault Ste. Marie under cloudy and mostly rainy sky.
It you look closely at our Garmin you will see that it’s showing us driving somewhere near the road and not on it. It doesn’t look like we will be relying on it until we can sort out the software/maps issue.
We stopped for a quick lunch at Gloria’s Motel. It looks like there are vacancies…
We just used the parking lot with our back to graffiti and half burnt structure, facing the lake.
Another quick stop at Old Woman’s Bay for a stroll on the beach.
And a happy surprise. We found our secret boondocking spot. It wasn’t closed, we just didn’t find the right spot when we tried to find it in the dark . I plotted it better on Google Maps this tie, and hopefully next time we’ll find it when we need it.
We crossed the border into the US in Sault Ste. Marie and started heading towards our campground for the night; Two Hearted River State Forest Campground, a primitive campground on the south shore of Lake Superior.
I set Google Maps on my phone to take us there and we sat back and enjoyed the drive and the hint of changing leaves.
We turned onto a packed gravel road that looked good, but it ended up being more like a muddy washboard. Tony sighed. We kept on going and I didn’t reveal that there are 26 miles more of this still ahead. When he did find out, we argued. Tony wanted to turn around thinking that if it rains at night it will be hard to drive back, While I thought that since we are almost there we might as well continue. If it rains, we can always stay another day. Or two.
Are you starting to see some personality differences by now?
Anyway, my phone wasn’t doing very well. There was no reception and even though I was in an active route mode, a message kept popping out “cannot determine location”.
It was able to determine however, that we need to take a right turn onto this narrow dirt road.
It looked sandy.
Tony refused to continue.
I insisted and being the smart man that he is, he knew better and he kept on going.
For a few metres and then our hearts sank.
Well, actually, the van sank. Into the sand that is.
It doesn’t look too bad though.
Well, maybe it is.
Did I mention that it was cold? Tony went out with a shovel, while I guiltily sat in the car trying to think of ways to undo this fiasco. We have some traction pads that we carry in the van just for occasions such as this (because the wife always insists on getting into trouble).
Tony dug out some of the sand and placed the traction pads. Should be easy to get out now. We started the van and put it in gear. Nothing.
The wheel swallowed the traction pads and they disappeared out of sight.
Damn. It may not be so easy…
We found some planks of lumber around (remnants of others that were in the same predicament?). That didn’t work either.
If you look closely at Tony’s hat you will recognise the symbol of chaos and ensuing disaster. Just like Great Britain, we are doomed.
Night was falling,
and it started raining pretty hard. There was no point freezing to death trying to free the van, so Tony came in, all covered in mud, to warm us a bit.
Still no phone reception on both our phones. Surely, another car will come by soon and we can get them to call AAA.
No. No cars are coming.
It was nighttime now and we were stuck in the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere with no reception, maybe this warrants using the emergency button on the phone? Is this an emergency? It’s starting to feel like one. We mulled this over for a while and finally decided to call 911 for help.
I dialled on my phone and a message popped up: “we cannot determine your location, your call cannot be completed.
Are you kidding me? I will tell you my location if you let me complete the call!?!
We tried Tony’s phone with the same results.
It looked like we are spending the night in the middle of a dirt road, in the middle of nowhere, slightly tilted sideways. Let’s just hope that no cars ram us at night.
Does anyone hear a faint banjo music in the distance?
Internet gods: 3 – us: 0.
At least we had some sushi that we bough in Sault Ste. Marie. We ate a little and decided that the only option is to start walking in the morning. We can either try walking to the campground that was about 3 or 4 miles up the road, or back to the gravel road, where we may be able to flag down a passing car if there will be one. Preferably one without banjos.
We didn’t want to turn the propane on in case the system was compromised and we didn’t want to add an explosion to our misadventure (read: couple found dead in burnt van just a few miles from safety), so we went into bed with our clothes on.
Also, we slept in our clothes in case of banjos.
It was cold and it rained pretty hard and the howling wind and our own racing thoughts kept us up.
We were not able to sleep that night.
Since the universe likes justice, or you may call it Karma, my bed was the one tilted into the isle and I spent the night trying not to fall out of bed. A quick tip to those of you who may end up sleeping in a tilted van. If you have an extra pillow, place it lengthwise along your body and a bit under you, it will act as a wedge and your bed will feel level again. Even with this piece of innovation, I didn’t sleep. Tony who was tilted into the wall of the van didn’t sleep either though.
No cars came at night. It looks like we may be the only suckers taking this road.
To be continued…
Oh my word!
I used to think only idiots got bogged down. Until it happened to us, too! More than once, although the second time was easier because we bought some sand ladders!
Good tip about sleeping on the tilt.
I hope you got out…
We certainly need to get better sand ladders for next time I get us stuck 🙂
I note your taking of responsibility there!
Very big of you 🙂
I did try to argue that if Tony wasn’t trying to turn around when it wasn’t needed, I would not have been so stubborn, but then I just rolled with the admission and the guilt 😂
I am proud of you! xx 🙂
😍
And you’re still married?
Well. Maybe…
My husband got us into many jams like this on his own without any help from me. I know how frustrating getting stuck in the sand or mud can be. Hope things go more smoothly for you.
In the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the road 🙂
Not much fun being stuck in sand for sure.
Oh the joys of internet, cell reception and CAA!! You have quite the dilemma! 🤞🤞
We sure do!
This is quite a thriller, even without the banjos. Eagerly awaiting part 2!
Haha, coming soon!
Great read, but a not so great experience with the weather, cell service, and last but not least…sinking into the Earth. I would have been extremely frustrated in those moments. Glad you made it through.
We roll with the punches, even we deliver those punches ourselves (royal we)
Oh dear, it sounds like the premise of a horror movie! It’s a good thing you lived to tell the tale… or is this really a cannibal psycho backwoods family that is typing from your phone on your blog? 😆
Old Woman Bay by the way is so lovely. We’ve only driven by it and hope to stop by next time. I remember being so astonished by the view from the road on the drive back home.
LOL, I guess you will need to wait and see if there is a happy ending or canibal psycho family eating our brains. And yes, Old Woman’s Bay is very pretty!
Next time before you go on another adventure, I recommend the “Wrong Turn” horror film series. It’ll make your evenings out in the middle of nowhere more suspenseful. 😆
Haha, no thank you!!! The nightmares!
Now thats an unexpected adventure. Not one you want to be in late in the season when it is cold and rainy and no cars are coming along. Can’t wait for Part 2. Allan
It was very eerie spooky!
I wanted to say I have always thought that “Sault Ste Marie” is one of the loveliest names I have ever thought from the time I first read it on a map when I was a boy. Then you changed to disaster mode. I’ve been in that place as well when my mate Ian and I got stuck in the middle of the desert in central Australia. But it always works out well in the end. But Ian wasn’t a wife – just a good friend. There is a difference.
I remember your story and I was thinking about it that night. It would have been a cool game to play if it wasn’t so cold and rainy! Feel free to drop a link below. And, hey, some wives are friends too. You can argue with friends as well…
Heck of a place to drive a car and a heck of a place to leave us readers.
Haha, that was a good one, wasn’t it?
I can only imagine the bad words that would’ve been flying if that had been us! Looking forward to the outcome…
Haha, there may have been a few bad words lol.
WOW. First of all, I can’t wait to read the next part of this wild adventure. Second, I appreciate your sense of humor as you recount this disastrous trip – the “Deliverance” references are especially entertaining. As for your “911” issue, the fact that we use our phones for so much, the realization that they aren’t working properly is always frightening to the extreme…
Right? We say how much we rely on our phones, but they can be life savers when they do work properly. We were talking about it that night and said that in the old days people had a radio and they could send out a distress message, but today you don’t know who will be on the receiving end and that is potential for even more banjos 😂
Oh no! Sounds like quite the night! This won’t help getting the internet but Maps Me are maps you download and have access to off-line. We use it all the time traveling.
Thanks! I download Here maps on my phone for offline maps, which helps in certain situations, but it wouldn’t have helped us in this situation. We plotted our route when we still had reception so Google maps where still keeping us on the route that was plotted. The problem was that it took us on the shortest route possible, not differentiating between the gravel road and the smaller dirt roads. The Garmin on the other hand, would plot a longer route on the better road.
Let me think that fairies will come in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere to get you out of the middle of the road. I can’t get over this fairy story it seems.
We forgot to leave offerings to the fairies at the forest and they never came 😥
What a story, delivered with the kind of honesty I appreciate. Newsflash—husbands and wives argue and sometimes we have to eat crow. (Possibly while listening to banjo music.) I can’t wait to hear the conclusion of your adventure. Hope you didn’t run into a drug cartel.
Luckily, there was no drug cartel activity that day in the Upper Peninsula 😊
This sounds like the trip that keeps on giving! Sorry to hear that you got stuck in the sand and didn’t have any cell reception. Good thing you weren’t injured because it seems like the emergency button on your phone isn’t all that helpful when you don’t have reception. I can’t wait to hear how it ends!! Given that you’ve uploaded this post, I’m assuming you made it out alive (hopefully without any banjo related injuries)!
Ha! I guess writing the post gave away the ending. We are alive and well 😊
Well, adventurous folks get into trouble sometimes. Hopefully you will look back on this and smile. 😊
We are already smiling 😊
I can see me getting myself there; I’ve been stuck in sand, too. But I generally have a fully stocked pantry! At least you did have a roof over your heads; being out in the rain driving a small sports car would really be the pits! And maybe you should tell us all where you were going, so we can learn from your mistakes –
Yeah, luckily we had a roof over our heads and enough food to sustain us for a long time. it could have been a lot worst. I do mention somewhere that we were headed towards Two Hearted River State Forest on the south shore of Lake Superior so take note if you ever end up going there.
Humm! Hope weren’t able get through the deep sand.
Yeah, we were hoping the same thing 😊
I had the same happen to me in the New Brunswick where Google showed I was driving off the road so it’s probably not your app, but the skewed reception. Hope you made it out—obviously not a fun night.
Yeah, we had similar issues with reception, but in this case it was more than showing us off the road and it was a software issue. The Garmin works off satellites so it may work in places that there are no cell coverage. Yeah, it was a pretty miserable night, but at least we had food and shelter!
Oh dear! I’m sorry that happened to you! One thing I’ve learned though is the mishaps during a trip mean that you have really lived, and that’s a good long-term perspective
Absolutely! A book without conflict, strife, or a climax is usually pretty boring.
Oh, I am so glad you made it to safety. I know you made it to out since you were able to post. What a nightmare!
Thanks, Julia! It wasn’t a lot of fun!
Hearing banjos is usually a good thing in the south, some redneck is quick to lend a hand using their jacked up truck. I read your posts out of order so I already know then ending but I won’t give it away. I will say this, marriage is forever a clashing of two personality types. 😂 You’re not alone! I got one of our cars stuck one time and my husband and I couldn’t stop fighting about it.
Oh, trust me, we really hoped for a redneck with a truck! The banjos were just for special effects and a laugh 🙂 Don’t worry, there was no real fighting, that was a bit exaggerated too 😂
😂🤪
I shouldn’t be laughing, but I am because you are safe and your story is funny. That happened to me in a church parking lot that was sandy. No getting out with traction pads or logs.
Hey, laugh away! It was a comic-tragic situation for sure 🙂
Wow. That a bad “being stuck” situation as well. And you were tilted sideways (ours was front to back, more manageable)! It sure sounds like your personality traits match mine and Tony’s “better safe than sorry” attitude mimics Mark’s! 🙂
Yeah, it was pretty bad and lonely, and yes, I always seem to get u into trouble despite Tony’s best efforts 🙂 We are heading to northern Michigan again next week so hopefully we’ll manage to stay out of trouble this time!