Introducing the Beverly Hillbillies

My work takes me all sorts of places.  Some days it is just around town and others it's in the boondocks of a town twenty miles away.  Sometimes the roads are fine, other times a road is to be desired.  And the most exciting part is you never really know for sure if mapquest is taking you in the right direction.  You do know one thing though, never rely entirely on a GPS.  A GPS doesn't do you much good when it can't pick up any signal.


I was driving down one road and things were going fine.  I hadn't had any navigational trouble and the roads weren't bad at all.  It wasn't long before the road I was on began to deteriorate fairly quickly.  Within a mile of turning on the road it had turned into a very narrow loose gravel road.  Shortly after the road turned to gravel I noticed an ambulance and a pick up truck speeding up behind me.  I pulled off onto the narrow shoulder of the road to let them pass.  It wasn't much use though, because they couldn't travel the road much faster than I could.  After tailing the ambulance for a couple more miles it finally came to a stop in the middle of a bend in the road.  I figured the house it was going to must be on the side of the hill to the right.  I stopped a polite distance back to wait patiently till I could pass.  That's when a jeep showed up with another emergency person.  


I watched as they loaded a very elderly lady into the back of the ambulance.  There was quite a crowd of people there.  Many of them (men and women alike) sporting mullets.  To my surprise, the ambulance just sat there.  I was wondering how it was going to get turned around and where I was going to position my car so it could get by me.  But they didn't go anywhere.  They didn't even close up the back doors.  I sat there awkwardly not knowing if I should try to pass by, turn around, or just sit there and wait.  How long could they possibly take anyway? 


It wasn't long before I realized the customers I was on my way to visit were standing at the back of the ambulance talking with the emergency staff.  I suddenly didn't know what to do.  Should I approach them and deliver my demand that they come pay their overdue bill?  Or do I try to get by unnoticed and stick the letter on their mailbox?  I didn't want to seem insensitive but their accounts were only getting further and further behind. Letting the accounts reach the point of no return wouldn't help them deal with whatever they may have going on at the moment.  I decided to call my manager to get her opinion.  But of course, I had no cell phone reception.  It looked as though it was my decision to make.  One of the emergency guys walked up to my car and said there may be enough room to squeeze by the ambulance...I considered for a split second handing him the letter and asking him to deliver it for me.  But there was no way I could get turned around to flee the scene.  So I hung my head as much as possible and still be able to navigate successfully around the ambulance.  


To my surprise, there was no house where the ambulance had parked.  But it was clear to see the woman had been transported from her home (where ever that was) to the ambulance by horse and buggy.  I had to creep behind one man headed down the hill on his buggy until he pulled off.  The houses along the road looked mostly abandoned with random windows boarded over, doors hanging open, and furniture laying carelessly around the properties. I finally found the mailbox of the sought after customers.  There was neither door nor flag on the mailbox.  the numbers were faded, peeling, and barely visible.  I decided not to try and make my way up the dirt, rutted driveway to the shack that couldn't be seen from the road.  I parked in the middle of the road (because there was no shoulder to pull off on) and found a place to secure the letter in sight.  More cops had shown up by the time I got back up the hill to where the ambulance still sat.  What exactly happened to the woman, we may never know.  We have yet to hear from the customers. Looks like another trip to the hills may be in my near future.  I wonder what I'll encounter next time....