Saturday Tourists… (4/21/18)

… Came wandering up to my place this morning. A young, polite Chinese couple, clearly in trouble. They had gotten their car stuck in a hole a few miles away. They slept in their car. They had had no food or water. They offered me $200 to take them to the highway. Unfortunately, I was expecting company in an hour – a BSK reader and her husband who had flown in to SFO and were renting a 4×4 Jeep and a place at the bottom of the road from me and who did not know the neighborhood, were coming up. I couldn’t take the couple down.

I offered the use of my phone, but it kept dropping the calls. I drew them a map of where they were, how they needed to go to get out of here. I gave them each a 1/2 gallon of water, bananas, and oranges. I was just sending them on their way, when my son showed up. “Want to make $200??” I asked him. After looking at the photo of their car, he said he could pull them out with his chain, so he loaded them up and took them back to their car. He needs to make his truck payment and works at whatever he can get. Plus, he is just an all-round good guy. Boy did those visitors luck out!

bigsurkate

Appointed appellate counsel for indigent defendants (retired.) I have lived in Big Sur since 1984, first on the north coast, and on the South Coast since 1989.

View Comments

  • Nice to hear a heart warming story for a change, thanks. And a pat on the back to your son.

  • I just found that they had emptied out one of the two 1/2gal jugs of water I had given them and left it for me. I knew they were thirsty when I asked if they had any water and when I offered to get them some.

  • The Chinese tourists were way lucky, but Big Sur Kate perhaps not so much... Major papers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian have run this story and Prasket Ridge Adventure Tours are sold out for the next three years... Twenty million applications in 48 hours, apparently a record.

  • And that folks is why it's good to have in-holders in the USFS lands, since the agencies aren't funded for enough patrol of their acreage!

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