Travel Diary - Going West Again! (Part 2)
After failing to score a campsite at Joshua Tree National Park, Becky turned the Vanagon around and headed back toward Shelton Road. We had scouted some free camping on BLM land there in case we struck out at Joshua Tree. We drove past a few homes and saw some places to camp that were only so-so. We were holding out in hope for a great place to hang for the evening. We trekked down the sandy road heading toward some rocky hills that looked like a perfect backdrop for a nice camp.
After few miles of driving over some sketchy embankments and tough, but passable, obstacles we came to an opening that had the potential for a good spot. As we came around the bend, we saw a vehicle and a group of guys up on a hill partaking in some target practice. There goes our spot! We decided to drive on a bit more.
As Becky began to drive on, the van suddenly slowed and wouldn’t move. Becky tried again to hit the gas, but nothing. We had driven into a large pit of sand. Uh-oh. She asked if I wanted to give it a go. I got in the driver seat and just dug the van even deeper. By this time, we had gotten the attention of the gentlemen up on the hill. They walked down and told us it was probably a bad idea to be driving through that spot. Ya think?!
This is the only photo taken that night. We weren’t really in the mindset to document the ordeal. 😅
The guys said they were US Marines stationed at the base in nearby Twentynine Palms, and they had a military-issued shovel in their vehicle. I crawled under our van to survey how bad the situation was...we were buried so deep the engine’s oil pan was completely buried! The van had sunk so much the crankshaft pulley was half-buried. We had much digging to do. One of the Marines and I were scooping out sand with our hands, while another was using the shovel. The more sand we dug out, the more the van began to sink.
I decided we needed to try something different. I found a nice flat rock and used the van’s jack on that rock to support the van while we removed the sand underneath. It actually worked! After a lot of excavating, we cleared all the sand from under the engine and lowered the jack. We tried moving the van again, but, once again, started to sink. One of the guys said he would drive to Autozone to pick up a tow strap to attempt to pull us out. We told him we couldn’t ask him to go out of his way for us like that, but he said, “We’re Marines. This is what we do!” We offered to pay for the new tow strap, but he said he had planned on buying one anyway. We still offered to buy it for him, but he refused.
Off they went to pick up a tow strap, leaving their shovel with us (that was our assurance they we would return). I continued to dig while they were away. It seemed like they were gone way too long. Finally, we spotted them coming down the trail. By this time, I had cleared out a major amount of sand. Things were looking good.
We hooked up the tow strap to their Toyota 4Runner. He got a great tug on the van, but it only moved a few feet before getting stuck again. Come to find out, the 4Runner was not four-wheel-drive. He almost got his Toyota stuck as well! That could’ve been a messy situation. Back to the drawing board, as they say.
They made a phone call to a fellow they were stationed with who drives a four-wheel-drive Nissan Titan. Luckily, he answered and said he’d be there straightaway. Meanwhile, we all continued digging while the sun was setting. It was beginning to get dark.
Their friend finally showed up after what seemed like ages. He hopped outta his truck and started running his mouth like Yosemite Sam! This guy was definitely a wild-card. I thought to myself, “This is either the first guy or the last guy I want pulling our van outta the sand.”
He walked around and surveyed the “sitchy ayshun” before hooking up the strap and hopping back in his truck. One big pull with his full-size Nissan truck is all it took! We were out of the hole and in the clear! Talk about a big relief. These guys basically saved our vacation.
We all high-fived and shook hands in celebration. Becky and I couldn’t thank them enough. We offered them all the cash we had on hand and all the beer in our fridge, but they would accept nothing. They felt as if it was their duty to give us a hand in our time of need.
This all happened over the span of 4-5 hours. These 4 gentlemen spent their entire night making sure we would get out of our jam. We will never, ever forget those guys. They’ve got some good karma coming their way.
We decided to camp elsewhere, so we drove to a nearby dry lake bed on BLM land that would serve us well. Navigating the wide open space of the dry lake bed in the pitch dark was something else! We couldn’t wait to see what our surroundings looked like in the morning.
-Andrew