breaking me in

I really think this blog may become a journal of my adventures and misadventures on the job as I've run into some truly unique and sometimes scary experiences so far at the paper. My first full week on the job I was sent out on a 6 a.m. milking way up in Hardwick, VT which for those of you who don't know Vermont, is 1.5 hours from Burlington (where I live). Rise and shine, Emily! I follow my Mapquest directions and they take me so very close to where I need to be, but also so very far, far away. My little car is traversing a narrow, gullied and winding mountain road with a thick snowpack. It's getting narrower....and narrower and I'm stuck. Here I am wedged into a mountain road at 6 a.m. in the middle of nowhere. Sh*#. The cherry on this sundae was that there was no cell service for miles, my car was running on fumes, and I can't remember the last time I saw a house or a person really.

Do I leave the car and snowshoe through the woods firing my two flash bodies as a flashlight and hope I catch somebody before sun up? Yes. I packed my backpack with food I had stored in the car and a couple bottles of water. I walked through the woods slipping through ice and snow back to a sugar house I had remembered seeing. All the while I'm praying I'm not the doofus that ends up on A1 tomorrow morning - "why did she leave her car?!" Maybe somebody will be there, it is sugaring season. My guess it was at least a mile back. As much as a I wanted to feel like a MacGuyver survivalist, I was freaking out. Never in my life had a felt like such a city slicker...and I grew up here for pete's sake!

I spotted a lit floodlight and went for it. I found someone and thank god they had a snowcat and a full tractor to get me back to my car and pull me out. Turns out Mapquest really messed up this time and had mapped a road that was really a homemade sugaring road and yours truly took the bait. Live and learn.

The good news is I was totally buzzed to take great pictures to make this misadventure worth it - so check them out below and click on the link, too, for the audio slideshow I put together.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/legacy/slideshows/031208meyer/index.html