Alright, so this title may be a bit misleading. It wasn't quite a ditch... more of a field to the side of the road connected with a 20-25ยบ sloped patch of grass, maybe 2ft in height. Not a whole lot of grass but enough to give my 2009 Toyota Sienna minivan some trouble.
My friend Wendy and I were going to Fourth of July fireworks at a high school in the next town over. In our infinite wisdom, we underestimated how crowded the neighboring streets and parking lots would be due to these fireworks, so we didn't leave ourselves with very many parking spot options based on when we left. Maybe a quarter mile from the school, we found a long strip of road leading up to a park. The road had mostly become a parking lot, but there was still room for about 5 cars on the field (described above) at the beginning of this strip. So, I decided to do what I had always seen my family do in these types of situations and create my own parking spot in the grass. I figured it would be hard to back out of such a spot in the dark with people constantly walking past my car, so I backed into the spot, leaving the front wheels of my minivan on the sloped part of the grass. I made sure to turn the wheels as much as I could and engage my parking brake because I could tell what a precarious spot my car was in, and I figured I would be fine when I got back later.
Just as we got out of the car, I realized that it might be smart to make sure I could actually get out of this parking spot. So we got back in the car and tried to drive up this hill. Nothing. My tires spun and my car stood still. I was starting to get worried but I didn't think this would be too big of an issue. I put the car into first gear and tried again. Still nothing. Just a lot of revving. In fact, this time a light on my dash turned on but I couldn't get a good look at it. Next attempt: pushing it up the hill. I put back on the parking brake, fearing that the car would start rolling back if I took my foot off the brake. I went behind the car and told Wendy to get in my seat, take off the parking brake, and put the car in neutral, at which point I started pushing my car from the back. No luck. Wendy put the car back in park and re-engaged the parking brake and I got back in my seat.
At this point, I was getting pretty worried that we would have to call AAA or something of that sort. I don't know what I was thinking, but I decided to put the car into reverse to see if it would move. Sure enough, it did. Gravity worked to its advantage and it made its way down the slope and further into the field. So now the car was on flat ground and I realized that my only shot at fixing this without someone else's help from this point on was to just drive and hope that the car could pick up enough momentum on the flat grass to get itself up the hill. Truly a last ditch effort, I put the car into drive and pressed the gas, and to my amazement I made my way up the hill and back onto the road!
So, I was an idiot to think my minivan could successfully park in that particular spot, but I was pretty damn proud of myself for being able to get myself out of this mess without having to call for help. Go problem solving, wooo!
