That’s quite enough excitement for one day, thanks.

Yesterday we had a fun day planned. We were going to go to the Colonial Days celebration in Provo. We love to go to the Crandall Printing Museum.

Ryan’s dad volunteers there to run the linotype, and our kids think it’s such a cool place. And during this week, people can tour the museum for free, and see all the other fun stuff they have going on at Colonial days. My sister the artist was actually there doing chalk drawing.

So, even though it was hotter than a day should be in Utah, we had a nice time there.

Except for one tiny little detail. Oh, you knew there had to be an “Except” didn’t you? Oh, yes you did, you smart thing, you.

Well. In Provo, they have these deep gutters that are about a foot deep and a foot wide, and there is no curb to keep you out of it. Why? I don’t know why. I guess it’s set up as a trap for unsuspecting cars or something. Well, I was that unsuspecting driver. I was looking for a place to park, and flipped a U-turn. Only not quite. I had almost made it, and CLONK!!! There we are, stuck in the gutter.

Wow, I thought, that was pretty stupid. Hmmm. I guess I’ll call AAA. The kids and I got out of the car, and I called triple A and they were remarkably helpful. They told me that they would have a tow truck there within the next half hour. I felt kind of dumb, but I had to ask the nice lady on the phone what would happen. “I mean, do I pay him, or is this just it?”
“No, this is it. You haven’t used our services this year, have you? Oh, and your membership is due to expire in August, so it’s a good thing it hasn’t expired yet. This is one of your four allowed roadside emergency calls for the year.” she told me.
“Wow, so I could have three more roadside emergencies in the next month!” I said. I was joking. I really don’t want to have to call them at all, but it’s nice to know I can if I need to. And I WILL be renewing that membership in August, let me tell you.

So as not to just sit and wait, the kids went with our friends who were with us, and went to go and see the Colonial fest while I waited.

With nothing to do but take a few more pictures, I sat and waited. A guy from across the street came over and asked if this were my car. Um, yeah. I was kind of embarrassed, but he told me people are getting stuck in these ditches ALL the time. Someone this morning did the same exact thing and had to be towed out. He told me that he and his brothers had been able to lift the car up just enough to get some traction and drive out of there, and they would be willing to try, if I wanted help. “Oh, that is so nice of you to offer, but I’ve already got a tow truck on the way.” I was very impressed that he would be so kind and offer to help.

In less than half an hour, Brandon the tow truck driver arrived on the scene.
First he figured he would jack it up, but then I guess he couldn’t find a good place to do the jacking. (Don’t laugh, I don’t know what you call it!) So, he put some wood down in the gutter and then hooked up the winch to the back of the van.

A little winch action and he had that car pulled right up out of the ditch. Wow! “That was easier than I thought it would be,” he said. Once we got it parked on the road and not in the gutter, he even looked under there at the axle and said he didn’t think it was damaged. “I’m not a body guy, but I think that should be fine,” he told me. I was so grateful! Thank you Triple A! I don’t know how much it would have cost me to have it extricated from the gutter had I been paying for it, but I’m sure it would have been more than the $45 a year I paid for the AAA membership. OK, I’ll stop. (But really, it’s a good thing, don’t you think?)

I walked about a block to where my kids were, and found them happily eating snowcones with their friends.

So, we went on a quick tour of the printing museum, (which I also highly recommend! It’s so cool!) saw some other displays and exibits, and headed out of there.

THEN, as if that weren’t enough, we had to stop and buy stage makeup, false eyelashes, and a parakeet. Yes, I said a parakeet. But that’s another story for another day.