The Most Dangerous Part of Driving? Our Driveway!!

So tonight, Tim nearly killed us. Well, maybe not killed us but certainly nearly backed off a cliff and ruined a rental car. Our driveway is a gigantic slope with a steep drop off on one side and a stone wall on the other. I wish I had a good picture of it but I don't. It's difficult to back in, difficult to pull in and requires a three point turn regardless. It kind of sucks but what can you do?

We were leaving to go to a Belgian Beer Tasting Dinner at Pie Hole in Frenchtown. Tim got in to drive, I in the front and Tiffany in the back and we were on our way... sort of. As Tim got to the top of the hill and started the three point turn the wheels caught on dirt and, being a front wheel drive rental, spun until we were obviously very close to backing off the cliff. Oh- and did I mention I was on the phone with Tim's dad at the time? (Mike- if you are reading right now, this is why I abruptly hung up on you, sorry!) Getting out of the car, I see he didn't have much room- maybe 3 feet, but I gave him the go ahead to back up JUST a bit to try and get out of the dirt before going forward again. He did and then tried to go forward which just caused him to slide backwards and give himself about 1 foot to work with. At this point, Tiffany has fled the car and I can't say I blame her.

Tim's million dollar fix it idea? Let's put rocks behind the wheels to chalk the wheels. My answer? No way in hell. What's to stop the large, heavy metal car from backing OVER the rocks? While Tim gets to work on this idea, I ran into the house to get Raffi, a local who was tiling our shower, to come out and help. I figured that this was NOT the first time someone on the island had been close to backing off a cliff and I was right. Raffi put some more rocks behind the car and then told me to sit on the hood. Oh, okay! Wait, what??? Excuse me??? He said we needed to sit on it to put more weight over the front tires so they'd grip. All I could see was the car going backwards but figured I could bail before it went over the cliff and got on. Tiffany, likely smarter than I am, stood by and watched. Tim put the car in drive and up the hill we went, yea! Raffi saved the day and I am so happy he was here. Otherwise I can imagine the bright blue Dodge Calibur would have been front end up leaning on our shed.

We made it to dinner about 15 minutes late, which in island time is still early. Thank god it was a 6 course pairing- we all needed each and every one of those beers.