Saturday was our travel day between Costa Del Sol and Costa Blancan(east coast of Spain). While we were driving we began to suspect we might not be on the correct road. Tom decided to exit to look at the map. Unfortunately, the exit was no longer an exit, it was one of those pebble berm/pebble pits meant for runaway trucks who have lost their brakes. They are meant to stop a truck dead in it's tracks. Before we knew it we were speeding into the pit at about 50 mph. It stopped our little car dead.
Upon inspection we were up to our engine in pebbles, We called our rental car company and said we would need to be towed out. Try explaining THIS situation to someone who's first language is not English :( They finally told us that a towtruck was on it's way from their closest affiliate...... 4 hours away. Really??? On what planet does itmake sense to send a tow truck 4 hours (at about $8.00/gallon for gas??) rather than find someone closer? Then they wanted to know if we could drive the car after it was towed out. Uh.... How would we know that? It seems like a reasonable question, but really, until we try to drive it, how do we know if it will drive? I was tempted to tell them "no, send a new car"simpy the because it was getting late and NOTHING happens in Spain on Sunday. If we needed a new car, would we be stranded somewhere until Monday?
With the tow truck 4 hours away and wanting to do everything we could to help ourselves, I began to walk the side of the road looking for flat things to wedge under our tires for traction while Tom took a board and began to dig out the front end. Afte we had done all we could, we tried to move it...nothing. This left us to sit.
After about 2 hours, two burley guys drove up, assesed the situation, and did what all burley guys do...they put their backs into it. They motioned (not a word of English between them)to Tom to drive while they tried to muscle it out. Nothing. After lots of Spanish (no comprende), motioning and sign language, and finally a phone call in which the guy read our license plate number to the person on the other end, he drew a picture of a truck in the dust on our back window. I think he said "uno hore" (one hour) and off they went, Had he requested a tow truck for us? We were hopeful.
A half hour later the police showed up. They thought the whole thing was pretty darn funny. They seemed fairly amazed by the situation, and yet then told us that this happens 1 or 2 times A WEEK! REALLY???? Huh. Wouldn't you think this would indicated to someone that something should be done? Better signage maybe??
The rental company called again and wanted clarification about the situation (this was the 6th call I think, again, language barrier). I told him to talk to the police,and that seemed to be the answer. They said the tow truck was coming but it was now a new one because the other one went to the wrong exit. With no idea how far into our four hours we were, we waited. The policewaited with us. Suddenly, a tow truck showed up (three hours after the accident). Just as he was hooking up the car, another tow truck drove past on the other side of the road. Hmn. Now we had no idea if both trucks had been sent by the car company (they said 4 hours and it had been only 3, and that was from the time of the accident, not from the time everything would have been put in place) or if one was compliments of the burley guys, or what. We were just happy to be on to the next step
. We were pulled out, signed the papers and the police were flagging us onto the road before the second truck driver even got out of his truck. We assume the tow truck who pulled us out was from the car company because the paperwork already had my name on it and we signed and drove off without any euros changing hands. The good news is, that we WERE able to drive off. It was to the music of pebbles rattling from every orfice of the car, but we were on the road again.
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