Fidelity: Failure

Things don't always go smoothly on our little exploratory jaunts.

The weekend after the Fourth of July, we decided on the spur of the moment to go for a nice country drive in Brown County, then perhaps have lunch in Hiawatha. We almost succeeded in the first part of our plan.

We were trying to get to Fidelity, which has a pretty church with a steeple you can see for miles around. However, we made the mistake of following our phone's GPS, even when we should have followed our better judgment instead.

Google Maps instructed us to turn off of Highway 75 onto 190th Street, just between Sac & Fox Casino and Fairview, KS. The better route was 200th Street, just a mile north of there. 190th Street is no longer maintained west of Bittersweet Road.

So if anyone is reading, here is the main thing you need to take from this blog post: Never use an unmaintained county road unless you absolutely have to. And if you do have to, certainly don't do it in a 2-wheel-drive vehicle.

Things went fine for a little while... but then there was a little bit of mud. And then a lot of mud. And then the van got stuck in it. 

After about 90 minutes of trying to get us out of the mud, I had succeeded in:

1. Digging us in deeper
2. Tearing off the front bumper
3. Causing a mysterious white vapor to come from the engine area

So I stopped trying and struck out for help. I walked (in my flipflops on golf ball-sized gravel) back to Bittersweet Road, then a mile in either direction, trying to find help at the houses there. No one was home (it was Fourth of July weekend, after all).

Finally, I made it back out to Highway 75, which was another 2 and a half miles. By this time I was a muddy, sweaty mess in my jeans and flip flops. The folks at the nearest house were really kind and gave me water to drink, a phone to call a tow truck, and transportation for my family to the nearest gas station. They were perfect examples of Kansas hospitality to us, and we were grateful beyond words.

The countryside was lovely, but we were too distracted to take any pictures of it. Instead, you get a picture of the very nice man who towed our van from almost-Fidelity back to Topeka.

We failed this time Fidelity, but we'll get you yet!