The Office of Erik Dahl

Rental Car + Desert = Seriously Stuck

Last week I was out at 29 Palms, CA conducting some field studies for work. Thursday afternoon we drove back to Palm Springs, CA to stay in a hotel near the airport in order to easily catch our flight back to Pittsburgh, PA Friday morning.

Its only a little over an hour drive from 29 Palms back to Palm Springs. On the surface it seemed like a very reasonable plan, however there was a moment Thursday afternoon when I wasn’t sure if we would catch our flight Friday morning.

The marines have a saying that “No operations plan ever survives initial contact.” I’d like to add an amendment to this saying. Plans also rarely survive someone saying “hey, let’s try to get to that road over that hill [somewhere over there through the desert]” when you are driving a rear-wheel drive rental car.

If you haven’t guessed it yet:

(Rental Car + Desert) x Bad Idea = Seriously Stuck

It seemed reasonable at first, but the sand soon turned quite loose before we realized what was happening.

As you can see, we didn’t even make it close to the hills, which was the goal of our impromptu expedition. We soon found ourselves buried in a big field of loose sand. If being stuck in the middle of the desert wasn’t enough, as we were getting out of the car to assess the situation I saw a coyote scamper through some of the surrounding brush.

We tried [unsuccessfully] to jack the car up and build a micro cobblestone road. It seemed like a good idea, and it started to work, but ultimately the car had other ideas.

After several failed attempts to free ourselves, we called AAA and headed off down the road to direct the 4WD tow truck that finally pulled us free.

The guy that pulled us out told us that he had recently pulled out 4 police cruisers from the same location after they got stuck chasing after a fleeing vehicle (he got away).