Pay it Forward

This is a story about our first van life crisis and the power of human kindness.

We had set out towards Big Sur to one of Alan’s favourite places; Prewitt Ridge. Alan has been there a few times and has told me about its magical sunsets on many occasions. We were both very excited to stay there and anxious to arrive. However, on the day of our journey there I read recent reviews that said the campsite had been trashed by disrespectful campers and was full of flies and excrement. Not only that, but because of the wet winter and recent storms the road up had become completely impassable for 2 wheel drive vehicles. We decided to go to plan B and headed to a nearby spot called Willow Creek.

We arrived there late in the evening, just as the sun was setting. To avoid driving treacherous mountain roads after dark, we settled on camping at a small dispersed site off the side of the road. It was small and very open, but it had a great view of the sunset. The next morning we set off to find a more secluded and spacious spot for us to really spread out. We found one that was perfect! It was on the top of a hill with a view of the ocean where the sun would set. There was more than enough space for us to sprawl and it was down a small dirt road that got virtually no traffic. But. There were flies EVERYWHERE and I do mean everywhere. It was impossible to stand still without a swarm of them buzzing around your head, in your ears, right up to your eyeballs. It was awful. Thus we decided to move on. 

The next few spots were further down the dirt road and along a ridge that stretched out towards the ocean. We knew that they would likely have the fly problem too, but hoped maybe the wind on the ridge would drive them away. We went down the road a ways until we reached a steep hill with a big divit cutting down it. Alan went down on foot to scout the campsite and see if it was worth braving the road. He came back and said we should go for it. There were still flies but it didn’t seem as bad as the last spot. The divit in the road went from the left side across to the right, so there was no way to avoid it, we would have to cross it. It was a little white knuckled getting down, but we made it without incident. 

The campsite was awesome. Out to our right we could see clear to where the sun would set and on our left we could see down to the coastline where the sea fog coalesced and dissipated over Highway 1. We hoped that we had found what we came to Big Sur for. 

It didn’t take long for the flies to find us, and once they did, it was bad. We did our best to ignore them or avoid them; going for a walk along the ridge and trying to set up a bug net over the van door. Eventually though we ended up completely sequestered in the van, swatting left and right, leaving corpses all over the floor. 

At this point it was about 2pm and I realized we still had 6 hours till sunset when the flies would *hopefully* go away. As much as we wanted to watch the sunset from our cozy campsite, being stuck inside the sweltering van, wistfully watching the beautiful day pass us by, I started to have second thoughts. I suggested that we pack up and head to our next campsite down the coast. It wouldn’t have the same sunset or the warm weather, but at least we would be able to enjoy being outdoors by the ocean.

We packed up for the third day in a row, swatting the flies from our faces as we worked. When we buckled our seatbelts, we were both relieved and excited to be leaving. At the bottom of the hill we both looked at each other nervously.

“It looks worse going up, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah… it does.”

Carefully Alan pushed the van up the hill in first gear, trying to navigate the only manageable route across the crack. Suddenly, the front wheels started spinning on loose dirt and we began to slide backwards and sideways. Alan was furiously pumping the gas and I was holding on for dear life as the van continued to slide off the road and we became more and more perpendicular to the hill. If you have ever been to Big Sur, then you know that it is a landscape with many cliffs. We were not exactly on the edge of a cliff, but maybe 20 feet behind us there was a steep drop that there was no coming back from. 

Luckily, the bushes on the side of the road stopped us a ways before the edge of the ‘steep downhill’. They did not, however, prevent the van from being almost completely sideways across the road. We have a level in the van for the propane tank and it marked us at a 30 degree tilt. It might not sound like much, but it felt very much and looked very much like the van was going to roll sideways down the hill.

We both got out of the van, a bit panicked and shaken. We took some breaths and did a walk around the van to see what kind of shape we were in. As we were evaluating our situation an SUV began coming down the hill towards us, but seeing the van laid out across the dirt road it stopped. We shrugged our shoulders in apology and the SUV backed up over the hill. 

“Oh no,” I thought, “please come back and help us!”

Alan and I turned back to the problem at hand, but not more than a minute later a man in his early fifties came trotting over the top of the hill. 

“Well you’re pretty screwed aren’t ya!”

“We’re totally f**ked,” I replied. 

He laughed and told us his name was Kevin. He was a high energy problem solver and he cracked jokes at every turn.

“Well you’re not going over the cliff, that’s forsure. You won’t lose the van today!”

As the three of us stared at the van, swatting flies from our faces trying to puzzle a way out of this, a jeep came rolling up from further down the road. Seeing that they were not able to get passed the van, a young couple in their early twenties hopped out. They introduced themselves as Carl and Shea and they had an old golden retriever in tow which lightened my mood significantly. They weren’t as excited as Kevin to problem solve with us, but they were sympathetic to our plight – especially as we were blocking their exit to town. As Alan and Kevin got to work trying to find ways to get some traction for the front wheels, Carl and Shea set off to find themselves another route out. I watched from the sidelines, trying to help gather wood and rocks to shove under the front tires, thinking how with the flies and the heat I felt like I was in one of the circles of hell. 

A bit melodramatic, I admit.

Shea and Carl were unable to find another passable way to the main road, so they joined in on the circus. For two hours we shovelled rocks and wood under the front wheels and Alan put it in drive and reverse, drive and reverse, just trying to straighten it out. We tried using our floor mat for traction and tor it to shreds. At one point the wheel was spinning over the mat so fast it began to smoke and I was certain it would catch fire. Kevin also had us try using our wheel levels as chocks. He would tell Alan to gun it and every time the van climbed forward a couple inches, Kevin would race to shove a level under the tire to keep it from sliding back again.

Finally we got the van facing up hill again. At this point, Alan was able to reverse it down to the bottom of the hill, back to where we started. We let Carl and Shea go ahead in front of us, jealously watching as their Jeep bounced over the crevice and up the hill easily. Instead of continuing to town though, they parked their Jeep at the top to wait for us and see if the van made it up. 

Alan and Kevin agreed that the best strategy was to get a good running start and basically floor the van up the hill. We filled in the crevice with some dirt and rocks and packed it down at the spot where the van would cross it. Alan was to keep the van going at about 30mph the whole way up.

It was the moment of truth. I joined the peanut gallery at the top of the hill to watch anxiously. Carl said we should play some music like, “Eye of the Tiger”. I forced a laugh, but honestly, I was terrified that I was about to watch my husband and my 2 week old home-on-wheels go up in flames. 

With about a twenty meter head start Alan hit the gas and we all watched as Savannah gained speed and began bouncing her way up the steep incline. She got to the crevice and I was holding my breath. The wheels kept turning and the momentum kept the van going and everyone one let out a triumphant, ‘whoop!’ After passing the crack in the hill, Savannah zoomed up the crest of the incline and we all practically had to jump out of the way as Alan took her up to a safe flat spot passed the top of the hill to stop. 

The relief was palpable. We were both so grateful for these kind strangers who stayed with us and helped us through this challenge. In the end it was mostly a matter of persistence, but without Kevin’s amazingly positive attitude and the helpful encouragement of Carl and Shea, we would have been in a much scarier situation. I wished I had some fresh baked cookies or some other kind of token of our appreciation to offer, but we had to make do with our most sincere thanks. 

As we made our way down the paved road to highway 1 we reflected that we had some serious karma points to make up for.

“Pay it forward,” we agreed. 

Before we reached the highway we had our first chance to act on it. 

Right at the bottom of the hill there was a pick up truck towing an old trailer that was having some difficulty getting around the corner.

“Should we stop to see if he needs help?”

“Yeah, I think we have to!”

Alan hopped cheerfully out of the van and offered our help. The guy wasn’t in nearly as tough of a position as we had just gotten out of, but he gratefully accepted some direction as he backed the trailer up. He asked about other camping spots further up the road and based on his ability to get up the hill thus far, we told him it’s best if he stayed where he was. 

We had our second opportunity to pay back our good karma only a couple days later. We were staying at a campsite over the weekend and Alan found a very nice iPad that had been forgotten near the bathrooms. He didn’t initially pick it up, thinking maybe someone would come looking for it. I thought about it for a while and decided that we should try to get it to the park ranger for safe keeping. I walked all over the campsite looking for the ranger to no avail. In the end, we decided to leave a note where we had found it, saying to either find the ranger or come to #12 campsite, where we would be. Sure enough, not more than an hour later a truck pulled up to our campsite looking around hopefully. We returned their iPad and they shook our hands and said thank you about five times before going on their way.  

Since then we haven’t been in any situations quite as obvious as those where we could do the right thing, but we are both trying to be friendly and kind in every interaction. Pay it forward isn’t just a sentiment that applies to situations where people need help, it applies to your every day way of being. It is in the way you smile and say, ‘hello’ to people you pass or, ‘thank you’ to the cashier at the store. It is letting little things slide off your back and trying to have a positive effect on the immediate world around you, all the time.