FOUR OF US WITH THE NIGHT OFF
Since Lorna decided to go to Switzerland to visit some of her children and her 2 grandchildren, I have sort of been put in charge of the cafe'. Being a Monday night and work getting done early, by 8 p.m., the 4 of us decided to go to the beach.
So off we went to Inch Beach, definitely the widest beach I've ever been to or even seen in pictures. This would be my second visit there. My first was on my bike from Rosemont. Down on Inch Beach you are allowed to drive your car on the beach. When we arrived around 9 p.m. and still quite light out we parked the car on the beach and just walked. We brought Ellie the dog whose only desire in life is to either carry around or chase her favorite ball. This is a ball she sleeps with and when any one arrives at the cafe' runs up with ball in mouth and begs for them to kick or throw it so she can chase it and come back for more.
It was a beautiful evening with no wind (apparently very rare) and with the tide out only added to the enormous width of the hard-packed sandy beach.
I don't know how long the beach is but after walking quite a ways, Colleen offered to walk back to her car and drive us down further to maybe see how long the beach really was.
So we're driving and driving (with Ellie and ball) wondering how far this beach really goes before you couldn't drive any further. It actually is a peninsula that curves around so you can't see to the end. Then the sand got soft. And softer. Then we got stuck! Really stuck. With front drive wheel buried in the sand after a few attempts to push it out to NO avail, we all started walking back. Only Kim from Barcelona had a phone. It seemingly only worked to call numbers in Spain. We couldn't call anyone. Just a few days ago, Colleen dropped her phone in the toilet deeming it inoperable. So we were disconnected from the world with a very long walk ahead of us. And it was getting dark. And possibly with the threat of the tide coming in and reaching the car, our once casual walk turned into a frenzy walk, if that is such a thing. We walked very briskly for about 45 minutes. So I'm thinking I can fast walk a mile in 15 minutes. This was probably 3 miles before we came upon a car with someone with a phone who was able to call the Phoenix to hopefully get Billy and plead for help.
Now Billy doesn't usually answer the phone. On this night he picked up after one ring.
A few coincidences follow that will remain unanswered as to HOW this all played out.
Billy has a van. Not 4-wheel drive. But 'coincidentally' his son Sam, who traveled with his mom, Lorna to Switzerland his home, left his 4 wheel drive vehicle at the Phoenix. So Billy was able to use it to pull us out. And 'coincidentally' just the day before, Billy came upon a heavy chain in his yard that he did not know where it came from. He left it there in the yard thinking to move it later. This night it was what we needed to get pulled out.
Where did the chain come from? We'll never know.
We all returned home about 10:45, opened some beer and all had a few shots of Kirsch that Billy brought out to try. Didn't get to bed till after midnight. All in all....A great day!
During the ride back home, Billy shared some amusing stories of the summer months where many, many people (tourists) get stuck on the beach with their cars. Even more amusing is the story of the farmer with a tractor who waits for people to get stuck so he can pull them out. All for 50 Euro. And then there was the man one summer who had a Range Rover who also waited to help people get unstuck. He charged 100 Euro.
Another story we all laughed about was when Billy's brother was here for a visit with a rented car. They both went down to Inch Beach, parked the rental and walked and walked and walked forgetting about the time. Well the tide came in and destroyed the rental can parked on the beach. Hence the mention of not having insurance on Colleen's car.
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