Getting stuck in the snow is easier than you think.

It’s snowed quite a bit here lately. Beginning Tuesday we’ve had upwards of about a foot of snow total… though between some melting and icing over it’s not quite that much, still it’s pretty white out there. The schools have been out and I even took about half a snow day because everything else was closed.

Well after a full day of doing laundry I buzz my buddy Brett to go out for a beer. He lives just down the street, basically across the parking lot of the now abandoned grocery store that’s immediately across the street from my condo. So I pick him up and we head north to our favorite watering hole for a couple beers.

The place wasn’t doing much business so we left early and headed home. This is important because I can’t blame what happened next on alcohol because I wasn’t drunk and because I had the idea before I started drinking. After dropping Brett off I decided to drive my All Wheel Drive SUV through that unplowed abandoned parking lot that’s across the street from my house.

I get about twenty feet into the icy waste when my tires started spinning and I stopped moving.

At this point I should probably inform you that I was not actually driving through snow. It was at one point snow, but then covered in freezing rain, more snow that melted slightly and refroze into ice and another couple layers of snow on top of that. Basically I’m about just inside the edge of a 100 square yard snow cone. But without the delicious cherry and blueberry syrup.

I tried reverse.

I moved a little less than six inches.

I tried forward again.

I moved even more less than six inches.

This is where I learn the difference between All Wheel Drive an Four Wheel Drive

I was stuck.

Seeing as I was less than 200 yards from home I ran home and got a shovel and started digging my tires out.

I tried reverse again. This is when I realized I needed some pushing along with digging. So I called Brett and he was nice enough to walk over from his cozy house to help me dig out.

It took about five attempts, each resulting in about four feet of progress but we finally made it.

The moral of the story: You don’t need 4 wheel drive if you’ve got friends who answer the phone when you call late.