On Monday we were driving home from Tucson where we shot Alison and Andy’s beautiful wedding. Along the way we decided to stop and photograph some of the many dilapidated and ramshackle buildings that are scattered along the Interstate 8 and 10 in Arizona and California. After passing through the Agricultural station on the border of CA and AZ, we saw a group of old buildings and cars on the right and exited the freeway. Once off the highway the road quickly turned to dirt that seemed to be fine to drive on. Our borrowed Mini-van was handling it well. Elizabeth seemed a little worried but I thought it would be ok. Everything was going fine and we were getting closer to the buildings when suddenly the road dropped down a little hill and became a sandy wash. I decided to stay on the gas pedal to see if we could get across it to an area of harder dirt. Unfortunately the further we got down the wash, the deeper the sand became. I made one tragic mistake and lifted off the gas pedal for a slit second and that was it. We lost momentum and dug ourselves deeply into the sand. Amazingly we had traveled about 1/2-3/4 of a mile down the wash before getting stuck! We made three attempts to dig her out as well as airing the tires down to about ten pounds to get some more surface coverage on the sand. After about two hours of digging and jacking up the car and getting no where we threw in the towel and called a tow truck. After all it was about 95 degrees out there in the hot sand and Liz and our dog Piglet were beginning to overheat. Thank goodness we had cellular reception. It also didn’t hurt that we were close to the Border station just on the other side of the fence. After about 15 minutes a 4×4 tow truck showed up and dragged us out in no time. We made it out safely and learned our lesson by paying what I like to call “the stupid motorist tax, $150 in tow truck fees. Next time we’re in a van we will be sure to look ahead and watch carefully for any danger ahead… either that or we will just take our truck instead.
