A Scary Moment that We Can Laugh About Now

Last January my husband and I went up to Jackman , Maine for a winter, snow mobile and skiing vacation.   This particular area of Maine is really dedicated to snow mobiles; there are trails throughout the entire area for sleds, even all the way to Canada.  People do live there, but it is not a very populated area.  It is mostly people traveling through on their sleds.  One afternoon we decided to go for a drive to check things out, do a little sightseeing and see what was around.  We drove about forty-five minutes away from the area where we were staying into another town.  Of course way up North, there had been snow, and the roads were not as clear as the roads we are used to.  My husband turns down this road and starts driving along, when we come to a split in the road.  Both roads at the split looked as though they were not plowed at all and were very narrow.  So, he maneuvers our small SUV and is able to turn around to go back the way we came.  The road we drove up on and now driving back on is only wide enough for one car. 

Well, here comes this pickup truck with a trailer attached to it.  My husband is driving very slow and getting as close to the edge of the road as he can.  The truck passes, and the next thing I know, our car is almost laying on its side.  I’m looking out the window and I am level with the ground.  Now, I am ready to cry! I was scared.  My husband gets out to assess the situation and comes back to the car and tells me to climb out the driver’s side door.  It is freezing cold and we are in the middle of nowhere and my imagination starts racing.  We had no cell phone service and it was going to get dark soon.  There was no house in sight and if I yelled it would have echoed; that’s how in the middle of nowhere we were.  While I am freaking out, my husband is trying to get the car out.

So, here comes a truck! It is approaching us and I step out to stop them and ask for help.  It turns out it was the same truck the passed us on the road and caused us to fall into this ditch.  They came back to help us.  They attached a rope to the front of our car and to their trailer hitch.  With one pull, our car came right out of the ditch and we were saved!  We can look back now and laugh at that experience, but I was really scared when it was happening and I think my husband was a little nervous to (even though he wouldn’t admit it!). 

Vocabulary:
dedicated- to be committed to something
populated- people living in an area
sightseeing- looking at different points of interest in an area
narrow- not wide
assess- find an answer
echoed- a repeating sound
ditch- a long, narrow hole for draining water; a hole in the grass or dirt
nervous- scared, uneasy

Cloze Activity: Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary word
1. The path in the woods was very ____________ going through the surrounding trees.
2. When people travel to Paris they may go ________________ at the Eiffel Tower. 
3. When I climbed to the top of the mountain, I yelled "hello" and my voice _____________.
4. Police men and women are _____________ to helping people in need.
5. Whenever I take a math test I am so ______________ waiting for my grade.
6. Long Island is a very __________ area to live in.
7. The baseball rolled into the _____________ near the field.

Grammar Activity: Find 5 verbs in the story and change them to the past tense.