The Blitz East, Part 3: Literally stuck in the middle of Kansas

Our morning started off great. We got in touch with our inner storm chasers in Oklahoma, navigating the roads in a rainstorm and taking a tour of the Twister Movie Museum. Afterwards, the plan was to drive the hour back to camp, where we had a long afternoon of work. We each had meetings scheduled for later that day, plus lots of looming deadlines.

Well, nature apparently had other plans. We drove back carefully, avoiding roads that could pose an issue in the torrential downpours. Then, when we were only a couple of miles away from the campground, we turned onto a road that we hadn't yet taken. It seemed like the straightest shot back to the east side of Wellington Lake, where our RV was parked, and as we turned the corner, it looked like just another gravel road. But then we got further in, and the gravel became dirt, and the dirt was mud, and the mud was slimy. Clyde started slithering back and forth, and Anthony said it felt like he was driving a boat, where he'd turn the steering wheel, but the truck wouldn't respond for several seconds. Not gonna lie, it was kind of entertaining at first. Clyde is a beast of a truck, and we've gotten into - and out of - mud, floods, and trenches with little issue. This mud was different, though. Kansas hadn't gotten rain for months, and the high winds cause a lot of dust to blow. Those dust particles landed on the ground and never got washed away. So, when the downpours came, the dust got wet and sticky, and there was nowhere for it to go. It's a recipe for disaster.

I was already taking a video because of the humor in the situation, culminated by the fact that Anthony and I are first-time truck owners who were terrified to drive something that big, but over the past few years have actually learned to enjoy the rugged adventures it offers, this included. I just so happened to catch the very moment Clyde the Beast got stuck, and our whole demeanor changed. Surprisingly though, we took it all in stride. After all, it wasn't really anything new and certainly wasn't the worst situation we had been in with getting stuck. It was only the truck, and there was minimal risk of damage in the situation, as long as we didn't slide into a tree or something. The road was empty so we didn't need to worry about vehicles crashing into us. And, as Anthony described, everything happened so slowly, we had time to process each moment as it came. Back a few weeks ago, we listed our scariest situations since we began full-timing. Though we wouldn't have included this one because we didn't want to jump ahead in our timeline, we don't even think this one would have made the list. It was annoying, sure, but not really scary. A testament to all the hardships we've endured since we've been on the road, but hey, it comes with the lifestyle. We take the good with the bad, and both have their place in the RV life.

We tried methodically to get the truck out. We changed into 4 low, we used wooden boards, and we attempted various maneuvers. The tires kept spinning deeper into the mud. What happened was, this road was manageable until we hit a downhill portion. The lower section had more water, making the mud thicker. The middle of the road wasn't as bad as the sides - the road was designed this way for drainage - but because Clyde kept sliding around, we couldn't stay in the middle, and eventually his driver's side rear tire slid onto the side of the road. That was the point of no return. The Clyde Slide, as we now call it.

We gave up and decided to walk back to the lake. We were only 2 miles away, but we needed to walk the same slippery road. Thankfully, neither of us fell, but we had some close calls. Anthony called AAA while we walked, and I marveled at the cotton field to our side. We had never seen a cotton field before!

We only walked to the next cross street when we saw a truck coming toward the intersection, about to take the turn. He saw us and stopped. You know the two Bostonians aren't anywhere near Boston anymore when it didn't even dawn on us to not enlist this guy's help. His name was Cole, and he had stopped for two reasons: 1, to make sure we were alright, and 2, to learn from our mistake and turn around. Until he explained the situation, we thought we were screaming that we were out-of-towners, but apparently not. Cole told us that the road we were on used to be closed but was recently reopened, and cars get stuck down there all the time. It really shouldn't even be open, but Cole lamented the fact that there isn't even so much as a sign warning people of the conditions.

Cole is a firefighter in town, on his day off. He assured us that he was just bored and so was driving over to check on his deer cams, and he offered to drive us back to our RV. His truck was only 2-wheel, and if Clyde got stuck down the hill, there's no way we were about to let Cole help in any other way. We got into his truck, Anthony still on the phone with AAA, who was having trouble even finding where we were on the map. If you don't know what to look for, you wouldn't even know that Kansas had streets that small because you need to really zoom in to see them.

We got to the point where we decided to hang up with AAA and take a recommendation from Cole for a local tow company. Every time we've gotten ourselves into a similar situation, we've always had better luck with the locals, and most of the time they're not even that much more expensive. Cole told us about Strickland Bros Towing. They winch people out of mud all the time, and even have tractors and dozers for roads that they can't get down with their trucks. Based on that description alone, we knew they were our guys. Anthony called them while Cole drove us back to the lake. We had him drop us off at the office so we could check in with the staff. We thought we should alert them to the issue in case we or anyone else needed anything.

Chevelle, the woman at the office, went out of her way to call around and see if any city workers could winch us out so we wouldn't have to pay for a tow, but for liability reasons, they couldn't help us. Not a big deal; we were already waiting on an estimate and timeframe from Strickland. We told Chevelle we'd let her know if we needed anything, but we were going to walk back to our campsite. After all, we still had a ton of work looming over our heads, like we thought we'd actually get it done. Anthony had already moved his afternoon call, and my evening call was fast approaching a similar fate.

We obviously weren't thinking straight at that point, because Wellington Lake is big, and in order to walk around it, we'd also need to go back to the road where we got stuck and walk it in the other direction. I didn't want to risk it, so instead we decided to ask Chevelle if perhaps one of the city workers could give us a lift back to our RV. With a quick text, she told us a guy would be there in a minute to get us. That's what I call service! So we waited.

While we were thankful that the workers were so nice, I also couldn't help but feel a bit of regret for my site optimization a couple of days before. I just had to send us around the lake to find our beautiful spot on the east side. Had we optimized for time and convenience instead, we would have just plopped into a site on the west side, putting us near the office. We also wouldn't have needed to take the muddy road to get back to our site that morning. But, how were we supposed to know? We loved our campsite! On the other hand, we were in some strange way glad that we got stuck because otherwise we probably wouldn't have known that the roads could get that bad. Clyde took one for the team and gave us valuable knowledge prior to towing. We'd much rather have Clyde stuck than our entire home.

Our hitched ride #2 went as smoothly as can be expected, but we were keeping a very close eye on the roads because we were due to leave in the morning, with the trailer. We asked our new city employee friend for his opinions on the lake roads. He said that most of the ones right around the lake wouldn't get much worse than they already are...for what that's worth. He got us back to the trailer safely, and from there, we waited to hear from Strickland Towing, whose ETA was within the hour.

During our wait time, we started planning out options for the next day. Not only were we supposed to check out of the campground, but we had a record 470+ mile day ahead of us. We needed to pack in a couple long drive days in order to get back to MA on time, and so we decided to do a "double drive day" through Missouri. Basically, we'd do our usual 3-4 hour day in the morning, take a break, and then do the next 3-4 hours in the afternoon. With sun setting at 6PM, there wasn't a lot of room for error. We wondered if it made sense to wait out the storm in Wellington and then try to make up the time later on. We were trying to give ourselves about 2-3 days of leniency just in case of an emergency situation such as this one. The problem with that plan was, the weather forecast was only looking worse from that day onward. More rain, thunderstorms galore, and a few days later, temps dropping below freezing. The mud was slippery, but would ice be worse? That was a scary thought.

When Strickland called saying they were 10 minutes out, we put a pin in our brainstorming and went out to meet them. We asked if they could pick us up on their way to our truck - something Cole said they typically have no problem doing. We could seriously get used to this Midwestern hospitality! And so, we got our 3rd hitched ride of the day.

Now here's the trade-off we faced. Strickland gave us the hour-long wait and sent a truck. Why? Because all the dozers were out getting other people unstuck. True story. So see? We thought we made an out-of-towner mistake, but in reality, we just did as the locals do! We weren't sure if a truck would cut it. We didn't want him getting stuck, too! But we didn't want to wait for an available dozer either. We all decided to just head to the road, assess the situation, and if needed, use some very long tow chains so the tow truck could stay on higher ground.

And so, we returned to the scene of the grime and came up with a plan. Our tow dude backed as close as he felt comfortable, which was still a good 100ft or more away. Then we got to winching. It's a tale as old as time. His truck didn't have the winching power to get us out, so he needed the extra power from the truck itself. Truck + winch + Anthony giving Clyde some gas, and we finally unstuck Clyde. We dug one gnarly trench in the process and also hit a half-fallen tree branch, but thankfully there was no damage to the truck. He just really, really needed a bath.

The drive out of the road was the second challenge. We needed to take things very slowly and carefully, feathering the gas pedal to keep from swerving. Our tires were caked in mud, which was causing even dry ground to be slippery. It took us probably 20 minutes just to drive the couple of miles back to our campground loop.

And with that, truck and trailer were together again. But we were far from out of the woods. We needed to make some very tough decisions regarding our planned travel for the next day. It was quickly looking like a "damned if we do, damned if we don't" situation. Our first step was to scout the roads leading out of the lake. We had also asked our tow dude for his professional opinion on the matter, and he told us that taking the lake road north would likely be our best bet because he had just come from that direction and the roads weren't as terrible as the south side. We took Clyde over there and found a few washed out and slippery spots. This almost made our decision harder because it wasn't an obvious black-and-white answer. The roads were bad but not impassible. We decided to wait out the night and see what happened with the weather, and then we'd do more reconnaissance in the morning. Granted, it would have to be extremely early in the morning, before sunrise, because on the chance we did leave, we'd need all the daylight hours to travel. Just in case, we began packing the night before, and I kept an eye on the weather forecast and radar, which were not providing an optimistic outlook. Now, in addition to the rain and freezing, there were strong winds approaching. That was the remainder of our evening. I bowed out of my meeting and we put a hold on all our work. Just as well. Our brains were total muddy mush by that point anyway.

That night, we barely slept. I was extremely anxious, and throughout the entire night were terrible thunderstorms. The forecast was saying we'd have a break in the storms for a few hours in the early morning, but that didn't happen. Downpours continued on and off the entire night. At 5AM, I gave up trying to sleep and started getting dressed for our reconnaissance. When we first got stuck, we were definitely not wearing the appropriate clothes. I almost lost my shoes a few times while walking in the mud because I was wearing slip-on sneakers. After that, we broke out all the clothing and shoes we had that would potentially come in handy: Old boots, windbreakers, wool socks, and rain jackets. Around 5:45AM, I woke Anthony up. There was a short break in the rain, and we needed to make a decision fast. We would either deem the roads passible and hit the road as early as possible, at the risk of driving in storms, or we'd have to change all our plans, staying in Kansas until it was safe to leave, and we had no idea when that would be. Anthony mentioned that morning that, no matter what, we need to make sure we're safe. That's of course our main driver in all our travel decisions, but this was more complicated. Even if the roads weren't totally safe, there's a chance they'd be the lesser evil because it was looking like even worse road conditions were about to happen. Earlier that previous evening, when we returned to our campground after recon #1, we noticed that one of our neighbors had packed up and hauled on out of their site rather quickly. In scary weather, we tend to look to the locals to see what they do because they know the land better than we do. The fact that they left at a time that was clearly not typical check-out time weighed heavily on our minds. We had a tight timeline but didn't want it to influence our decision too much. We also didn't want to be sitting ducks in crazy Kansas weather. Our only choice at that point was to check the roads, gather as much information as possible, and cross our fingers that our decision wouldn't put us in harm's way.