Common Courtesy?

Last Friday, we headed out to Big Flat for a ride prior to attending nuptial festivities later in the day. When we pulled in past the front parking lot, we saw a green Volvo wagon with the hood up and two guys peering under it. So, of course, we did what we thought anyone would do, we pulled back around and asked if everything was okay.

Turns out it wasn't. They were on their way to hunt turkey that fine morning when the car started misfiring on the climb up Ship Road from 233. By the time they got to the top, all the "Oh, crap!" lights were on and it had virtually no power. And the cat was glowing red--a bad color for that particular vehicular bit.

The driver wanted to check the cylinders for the misfire and asked if we had a spark plug socket, oh, about 5/8 or so. We were in the Pig, so I figured we did. Pulled open the draw o' junk in the back and pulled out the requested socket. Needless to say, the guy looked surprised! We pulled in to park beside them and began to get ready for our ride and continued to talk to them a bit--hunters and mtn bikers conversing in the forest. He said he had tried to make a call to his son but reception up there was pretty bad, as most of us know. We wished them the best and said hopefully we wouldn't see them when we got back from our ride, and took off.

Two hours and a really nice ride later, we pull back into the lot and they are still there, sitting in the car. Definitely a bummer. Talked a bit more about the car--two cylinders were dead, and he hadn't been able to get a call out, even after walking to top of the hill. Donna tried her phone but it was a no-go as well. We were definitely in the Big Flat Triangle. You'd think that for such a highpoint, there would be great coverage, but not so. We had to scoot, but asked them for phone numbers for us to try when we got back to the house. He gave us several to try and offered to pay us for the phone calls. We turned it down, of course, and I just asked him to help the next person he saw out there that might need it, since that's the way it should work anyway. He totally agreed with me on that point. With that, we were off, since time was closing in on when we had to get to the wedding.

Back at the house, Donna tried his son first and left a message, and then tried to call his father. Success! She explained what was going on and where his son was and we left it at that. Prepared ourselves to party-hearty and took off.

The next morning we checked the VM and found a message left by the gent with the Volvo. He thanked us profusely for our help and was very grateful for what we did.

But here's the kicker.

He said that NO ONE else stopped to ask them if they needed help. Even seeing a car sitting in the lot, hood up.

No.
One.

Even though several people drove by and even through the parking lot.

One guy even pulled into the parking lot and stopped because he was talking on his cell phone (obviously he had signal). When one of the Volvo guys started to walk over to ask Cell Phone Dude for help, Cell Phone Dude pulled out of the parking lot and left. He effing left. WTH?

If we hadn't stopped to ask these guys if they were okay, how long would they have been sitting there?

Yeah, people are all freaked out about crap they see on TV and stalkers and murderers and crap. But the truth is, 99.99999% of the time, it's just another person that might need your help. Especially in Michaux. Or any State Forest. There's a lot of nooks and crannies out there where the technological trappings of civilization just don't work. People still need to watch out for each other.

If you spend time in the Forest, please remember that. Try to be courteous to the other people you see. Ask people if they need help, if everything's okay. It might be you some day that needs a hand.