hydroplane. v.
To be or go out of control by skimming along the surface of a wet road. Used of a motor vehicle.
so after a nice day of climbing in joshua tree with sensei, golfer, jill, and jcpeace (josh), everyone went their separate ways. freezing and hungry, i went back to my campsite. as i sat by my tent, trying to get a fire started with wet wood and sipping my cup o’ noodles, i thought, “maybe i should just go home. i had a day climbing, it’s probably gonna rain Sunday. i’d like to sleep in a real bed.”
“no! this is your last climbing trip before the baby comes! plus, you already paid for the campsite. suck it up and climb!”
around 10pm the winds started. my tent was on a bed of rock, so i neglected to spike it down. the rocks on the corners didn’t help, and around 11pm, my tent collapsed.i struggled to get out of my sleeping bag and put on my jacket. i piled all my belongings into the back of my tiny car, laid down the seat, and contorted my body enough to lay down and sleep. the car rocked back and forth in the wind for the rest of the night.
at 7am, i woke up. the wind was still howling and the clouds were rolling in from the west. i sat in the back of my car trying to think of a sheltered place to climb. i drove out to Hall of Horrors, walked around, and decided to call it a day. i left the park, experienced the worst ever customer service at the Denny’s in Yucca Valley, and started down towards the 10.
The rain was pouring, and I could barely see 50 yards ahead. I was doing fine, trying to stay focused on the dashed white lines flying by. 10-west, just before california st. in Redlands, i hydroplaned. i did about two 360’s, bounced off the center divide, did two more 360’s and slammed head-first into the center divide. my car was totaled, i was shaking uncontrollably, and somehow my Joshua Tree park pass had jumped from my center console to the side pocket of the drivers side door (amazing physics).
no car rental places are open in this great city of Redlands. so now i’m sitting in the lobby of a Howard Johnson below the freeway, waiting for my father in law to drive up from San Diego and pick me up. he’ll drive me to SD where my wife is this weekend, then we’ll make the 2 hour drive back to LA tonight.
sucks.
lesson learned: if you already had a great day of bouldering, and the next day it will probably rain, and you’re alone, hungry, and only 2 hours from a warm bed and hot food…go, man. just go.
signing off from the HoJo,
jon
