Tom's Stupidity strikes again..

[Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided>]

Or maybe that's, "Tom acts his age again".. :-)

Went skiing yesterday.  Left a little early so we could make it to the 
Frontier 4x4 Christmas Party.. so around 3 I'm leaving the ski hill.. 
following a nice new Durango.. I'm in 2nd gear, off the gas, and I'm 
gaining on this Durango that's riding the brakes the whole way down the 
mountain.. the road isn't that bad.  It was around 45 degrees today.. 
more water and mud on top than any snow or ice...

I'm drinking a can of ice-cold (it was in the truck) A&W, groaning at the 
shiny new Four-by-Four creeping in front of me (Hey, we're not 
rock-crawling here folks.. this is a mini-van accessible road!)..

Durango pulls off at "Marysville".. a ghost town at the bottom of the ski 
hill but still a couple miles from the paved road.  

Naturally, I mash the throttle.. figured the dual turbos could make a 
little noise.. maybe toss a little mud up, and vent a little 
frustration.. 

Everything was working according to plan.  Then the Tracklok did it's 
thing.  Next thing, I'm counter steering.. over corrected.. counter 
steering again.. pop can is at this point (luckily mostly empty) slung at 
the driver's side door and out of my hand as I fishtail back again, and 
end up in the ditch.. MORE THROTTLE trying to bust out of the deep snow 
in the ditch.. no such luck, I'm a at a stop.

Durango slowly creeps by.. they must've been laughing, but I wasn't about 
to meet their eyes.. thankfully they didn't stop to offer me a strap (not 
that these folks were even the type to think about offering a tow strap)..

I opened the door, laughing and shaking my head, locked the driver's 
hub.. walked to the other side and unburied the passenger side hub and 
locked it.

Back in the Scout, 4-low.. thought for a moment of busting forward and 
out, then got older and serious again, put it into reverse, stood on it, 
and zipped backwards out of the snow bank.. yanked the stick into 4-hi 
and 1st gear and took off.

I caught the Durango in just a moment's time.. though two cars got 
between us.. 

Funny.. the Durango *and* the other two cars took the very first turn off 
the paved road... "That idiot in that grey thing is behind us again!"...

It was stupid n' childish.. and I knew it when I did it.. though winding 
up in the ditch was even stupider and more childish than I had planned on 
being.. ;-)

Good news is.. unlike two years ago when I drove off the same road into a 
snow field and buried my open/open '72 SII in the snow.. I was able to 
get out on my own this time.  ;-)

Besides.. I got the Scout *really dirty* driving the rest of the road.. 
like I said, a covering of mud on top of the road.. not a challenge to 
drive, but it sure does make a mess!

-Tom