Jackie and I are bringing in the new year with a ladies road trip — Road Trip 20Femme as we’ve dubbed it– from Santa Cruz to Eureka, CA with two of our old roommates from San Diego. On day one, we already got into a muddy situation, literally, after we took a wrong turn trying to go kiwi picking at the Swanton Berry Farm U-Pick stand North of Santa Cruz off Hwy 1. We ended up on a dirt road that got progressively softer until my tires were coated in mud which sent us sliding, zig-zagging, down a hill into a puddle we couldn’t get ourselves out of. Miraculously, Jackie and I were able to reverse out of a small ditch and turn the car around, but my tires didn’t have enough traction to climb back up the sludgy hill.

We didn’t have any cell phone reception to call AAA (iPhones are only as good as your cell phone reception) so we hitched a ride to Swanton’s farm stand eight miles south and spent the time it took for AAA to rescue us making friends with Swanton farmers and labeling jam.

Dave from AAA showed up an hour later and had no problem driving my car out of the mud (we swear the ground must have dried significantly in the meantime.)

And all of that was for this — picking a bag full of fuzzy round fruits that were too under ripe to eat. At least we got them free for helping label jam. And I have a feeling they’ll taste so much sweeter knowing all the work that went into getting them.

Jackie and I may try to pitch a story about our female road trip to Girlfriend Getaways. At the rate we’re going it could be pretty entertaining. Even when we’re on vacation, reconnecting with old friends and family, or digging ourselves out of the mud, we’re always thinking about telling stories and trying to get ourselves published. Happy New Year!