theboondork's RV blog

Stuck in the mud

4/20/2017

Storm clouds forming over Storrie Lake State Park

Not much of anything going on today except one of the RVers staying here at the campground got stuck in the mud down near the lake. Fortunately he wasn't pulling his trailer at the time he was just driving near the lake in his one ton Dooley and didn't realize how slick it gets near the water.

The mud near the lake is very deceptive it doesn't look like you're driving into a mud bog because it's not actually a bog its just very very slippery. And to make it worse the land slopes almost imperceptibly towards the lake so you can get close to the lake but when you try to come back you find out its ever so slightly uphill and that's enough to make getting out almost impossible.

How impossible is it? I watched two four-wheel-drive pickup trucks pulling at the same time trying to get that truck out of the mud and they couldn't do it. And it's not because they didn't have the power, the problem was they each only had about 25 feet of tow chain so their trucks were sitting in the mud and they couldn't get any traction.

After two or three hours of trying to get that truck unstuck the state Park sent their fire truck down to the lake and he was able to stay 100 feet away where it was dry, roll out 100 feet of winch cable and winched the truck out of the mud.

All of that activity was the high point of my day which quickly slid to mundane and then bottomed out at boring. I guess I should be thankful that most of my days are mundane and boring although I do sometimes envy other full timers whose travels are filled with excitement and adventure.

theboondork

Pulling a truck out of the mud at Storrie Lake State Park

Notice how the stuck truck, that's the one in the back, is not hubcap deep in mud.

This is what it looked like after all the trucks left. There's no deep holes its just very very slippery.

8 Comments

Edward

4/20/2017 10:49:09 pm

Along the TX coast in some areas, I called that stuff "black gumbo". When it was dry with no rain it would crack open leaving open spaces, good for the poor ankles. But when wet, slick as ......... grease. Slip and slid like that pickup next to the lake. By the way, have you heard from OFM? Take care.

theboondork

4/21/2017 07:57:36 am

Yeah I guess it shows you that when you're driving around off road you need to know what kind of hazards are there, or at least get out of the truck and check out any suspicious areas on foot. But in this case I don't know if that would have helped because it doesn't look all that bad when you're walking on it.

I haven't heard anything from Barney since the day before he started blogging again. But it looks like from his blog he's back on the Texas coast again harassing the fish around Rockport.

Tom

Gumo link

4/21/2017 08:06:26 am

I like boring nowadays. I really don't like adventure because there is an old say, "it's not an adventure unless something goes wrong."

4/21/2017 09:27:13 am

You know, I never thought of it that way, but that's very true. If you go walking in the woods its just a hike, but if you get chased by a bear it's an adventure. Maybe I should count my blessings.

You don't happen to be one of the Marx Brothers do you? If I remember correctly there was, Groucho, Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, and Gummo.

Tom

barney link

4/21/2017 09:00:07 am

I am still around but without anything worthwhile to add to the conversations. Be safe.

4/21/2017 09:33:04 am

Oh come on, with almost a decade of full timing under your belt you've got lots of worthwhile things to contribute. Like for instance how did you manage to use the word "slither" in a blog post that had nothing to do with snakes?

Tom

4/21/2017 11:03:18 am

I am the slither king, that's how.

4/21/2017 12:07:07 pm

I'm a mere Peasant in the world of blogging but Even with my extremely tenuous grasp of the English language I believe I have the ability to throw in a "slither" every now and then and maybe even a "plethora" so prepare to be dethroned.

Tom

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Stuck in the mud

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