I was driving around looking for some good locations to photograph and I found this awesome looking hill that I just had to check out. The road was totally paved, which was good, as I was already leery about anything resembling mud or snow. As I was driving up the hill, I noticed that the road was no longer paved so I actually decided to stop. But somehow, some way, I had a brain freeze and decided that I would try an Austin Powers maneuver and get this BMW 525 turned around on this small road. As you can see in this picture, there was no possible way that could have happened.
I walked down the hill and down the road towards the nearest petrol station. As luck would have it, and I mean serious luck, the lady actually spoke very fluent english. She was in her mid 50s and it is incredibly difficult to find anyone who speaks english, let alone someone who's a little older. You just don't find it. And most importantly, she was very kind and extremely helpful. She listened to my story and worried and laughed with me and she called every garage/tow truck/car service around the neighborhood. And when she couldn't find one, she called the surrounding towns. She said that we shouldn't call ADAC (similar to AAA) because it's more expensive. She said it should be our last resort. At first I disagreed with her, but I appreciated her thoughtfulness nonetheless.
This small petrol station was owned by her and her husband. Their son, about my age, actually drove up to the hill to check out the situation. He and his father came back with weird looks on their faces, wondering what it was that drove me up that hill and into the mud. They laughed also and were very kind. Finally, the lady found a person who had a truck large enough to pull the full size sedan out of the mud. Within a few minutes, the truck pulled up to the petrol station. The guy was probably in his twenties, very eager to show that he could pull the car out of the predicament. The car was about 500 meters away from the petrol station so the son actually came with me to help with the english translation. When we drove up the hill, the tow truck driver just looked at me with disbelief. At first, we didn't know how to do it because with the way the car was positioned, the best place for him would have been on the grass. Unfortunately, that couldn't happen because it was also very muddy.
After analyzing the situation, the son and the tow truck driver decided to just try to do it slowly. They were so careful with the car and made sure that they minimized whatever damage could happen with the car. The way this was positioned, you can easily see that we could at least scratch the car. To minimize this risk, the tow truck driver took off his jacket and wrapped it between the rope and the car. It's not even my car and I was greatly touched by what he was doing. After getting everything secured, it only took a few seconds to pull the car out of the mud. The son told me to give the tow truck driver 30 EUR, so I gave him 50 instead.
When we went back to the petrol station, the lady was smiling, after realizing that we had pulled the car out of the mud. They told me that many people have done the same thing, although not for the sake of photography. I asked for their business card as I had very little cash with me and told them that I am extremely grateful for their kindness and that I would send them something instead. They said that if I'm ever in town again, I should stop by and they would show me more of the area that I can photograph (albeit not in the same way as what just happened).
What I've learned in the past few weeks is that every now and then, we all could use a little help. If you're stuck in the mud, you need all the help you can get. Hopefully, you will find people to help you. What I've learned is that sometimes all you have to do is ask. Maybe you won't find it immediately, just like it took us 20 phone calls to finally find someone who could help me. But if you don't ask for help, you will never get it. And everyone needs a little bit of help sometimes. It doesn't matter if you are unemployed or have a six figure salary, it doesn't matter if you're driving a $60,000 car or a used '84 Toyota Corolla, and it doesn't matter if you're healthy or heartbroken. We could all use a little bit of help.
It's funny because I went up that hill to see what magical picture I could find. I'm always searching, at least in the past few days, to help me paint my current situation and to find that scene that best describes how I've been feeling. And even though I may not have found that picture up the hill, I can definitely say that I still found some magic.
--
You can find more pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220653&id=653050323&l=74022
--
