Wayside_Wisdom Heard Along the Way
THE "ARKANSAS SLIP 'N SLIDE"
No, friends, it isn’t a new dance step! It’s a new game that combines the excitement of a tractor pull with almost all the fun of mud wrestling! We learned it when we visited friends who live in the wilds of northwest Arkansas, fifteen miles from the nearest outpost of civilization and three miles from the nearest paved road!
Their lovely home is built into the side of a hill. The front door of the main floor of the house opens out onto a wooden deck which overlooks a lovely, fairly level front yard, partially surrounded by split rail fence. The back basement door opens out into a level, small grassy lawn several feet lower than the front yard. That little back yard is a quiet and peaceful place to park an RV when their "on-the-road" friends come to visit.
We had a great time together, visiting the near-by lake, a Civil War battlefield and its National Park Service museum, and a working water-powered grist mill in the area of their home. We even spent an afternoon visiting the Sam Walton/Wal-Mart Museum in neighboring Bentonville. We talked a lot, laughed a lot, and ate lots of ice cream together. Then it came time to leave their hospitality and be on our way traveling north.
That’s when we learned how to play the "Arkansas Slip-‘n-Slide"! It had rained and drizzled for most of the three days we had been parked in their back yard. The red Arkansas clay had been miraculously transformed into sticky red Arkansas mud!
Bruce hitched our 15,000 pound fifth wheel trailer to our Ford 350, two-wheel drive truck as usual. He began to back the rig slowly up the hill out of the back yard. It hadn’t moved more than six inches before it began to slip and slide – sideways to the left and then to the right! – and finally groaned to a halt and spun trenches in the ground with its wheels.
"That’s the problem with a two-wheel drive truck," our host said with more amusement than sympathy for our predicament. "And what can you expect from a Ford?" Bruce unhitched our frustrated Ford and our host quickly hitched his Dodge, four-wheel drive truck to our rig. He confidently slipped his truck into reverse and began to back the rig up the hill – for about a foot! Then the four wheels of his Dodge began to spin, slipping and sliding even deeper circles in their back yard which was now pure muddy marsh!
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The next step in our game of "Arkansas Slip-‘n-Slide" was to leave the Dodge truck hitched to the front of our home on wheels and connect the Ford truck to the back end with a chain. Our hostess, between fits of laughter, coordinated the two vehicles in tandem towing. It was a great idea – but it didn’t work! Now there were three vehicles – two pick-up trucks and a 7 ton fifth wheel – spinning and sloshing, stuck in the red Arkansas mud! At this point in the game, somebody suggested that we might just stay another day or two. That sounded like an attractive alternative to the "Arkansas Slip-‘n-Slide" until we remembered that the weather forecast was for rain for the next three days! It was time for the secret weapon! As Bruce unchained our Ford truck from the back of the mud-mired train of vehicles, our host disappeared out toward his storage shed. Then, up the driveway he came on his all-purpose tractor. In no time he had it chained to the back end of our fifth-wheel, which by now had slid sideways making the whole area look like a train wreck! Bruce was at the wheel of the Dodge four-wheel drive truck pushing from below. Our host was on his mighty little yellow machine pulling from above. Our hostess was directing the whole operation from the sidelines. Slowly, with much slipping, sliding and slopping of mud, the whole long line began to move! Inch by inch, up the hill, the rescued rig rose until it reached the level area beside the front yard. There it was encouraged with such cheers of relief that it needed only the assistance of the Dodge truck to roar on up the driveway hill to the road! |
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Good-byes were said. Hugs and advice were given. Then the Ford truck, the rig and we were on our way, slipping and sliding carefully down the muddy gravel road toward the highway. We had left behind, in our friends’ back yard, some deep and lasting impressions of our first game of "Arkansas Slip-‘n-Slide"!
We hoped it would be our last game, too! But, about half a mile down their road, another slick, mud-covered hill proved too much for our overworked Ford truck! This time, though, we were slipping and sliding on a public road and, without additional power, the truck began skidding backwards and our fifth-wheel was backing toward the side ditch!
Thank goodness for cell phones – and helpful friends! Their four-wheel drive Dodge truck was all the help we needed this time to make it up the hill. We left this, our second game of "Arkansas Slip-‘n-Slide," covered with thick, muddy memories of our visit to "Arkansas, the Natural State!"
5/4/2007 - mshr