“Can you hear me?!” I shouted down at the lady. “Can you hear me?!” I shouted again a little louder this time. My heart was pounding from adrenaline. How quickly circumstances can change, just five minutes earlier I was enjoying a leisurely ride in my Bronco, four wheeling through the sandy arroyos enjoying a nice diversion on my lunch break out in the “boonies”. I was working at Gateway’s Tech Support call center in Rio Rancho, NM. Since I had an hour for lunch and was just five minutes from being out in the middle of nowhere I often enjoyed getting away for lunch to exercise my Bronco a little. The torrential downpours that would happen occasionally had cut some pretty deep arroyos through the mesas near the call center. They were perfect for getting oneself into a slight jam to four-wheel your way out of. The dirt roads in that area were susceptible to being washed out, if you weren’t careful you could be driving along and suddenly find you're taking a nose dive into a 6 foot washout.
To be continued...