Stuck in the snow

So we had quite the time last week.
We were headed out to a city about 5 hours away. Naturally, we didn't check the highway hotline before we left, because one way or another, we were going to go.

Before we continue, you need to understand something about my car...

It's a 2003 Ford Focus. I paid about $1900 bucks for it. So far, I've put about.... $2000 into repairs and servicing, Seriously. It's retarded.
So needless to say, it's unreliable.

Anyways, we're on our way out through the great white blizzard. Then, wouldn't you know it? The check engine light comes on. Now the trick here was that we had to pull over for about 10 minutes and then we'd be able to drive again. This happened periodically throughout the night. Why? Because the car was sliding. Seriously. That was awful. But hey, it worked.

So I pull over on what I think to be an approach. NOPE. It's the ditch. So we're stuck in the ditch, and the roads are so crappy that the tow trucks aren't even coming out to get people.
Lovely. We're like 2 kilometers outside of town, and we're stuck in a ditch. Nobody is coming to rescue us.
Luckily, we weren't that stuck! All we needed was someone with a truck to pull us out.
Pull us out...
Nobody came.
So we googled the hotel of the nearby town and asked if they knew anyone with a truck. Know who they referred us to? The tow truck driver. So we called him, and he eventually came out with his 4x4 and yanked us out.
So we're done right?
NOPE.

about... 20 minutes later, we get stuck again. Why? A semi can't make it past a huge-ass snow drift. It's stuck up to its windshield in snow. And why did it get stuck? Some young buck in a big ol' truck (I like the way that sounds) got stuck beside him first. So the semi had to swing to the left to not smoke him.
But on the right.... Completely clear. We totally could have gone around this guy on the right.

But we were stuck again. Just barely this time, and we managed to push ourselves out. But the snow was piling up fast, and this kid's dad said he would be coming along to get him out. So we waited... And waited... And waited....

Finally he shows up. With a hockey stick. To get his kid out.
What he ended up doing was just taking his kid home in his truck and leaving the other one there.
Great. Now we had nobody to follow.

Luckily, a bus pulled up behind us! So he plowed on through and we got to follow him.
Problem is, buses are a lot wider than my little car. So we got stuck again. We managed to back out and had a few people go in front of us. Taking up the rear, we continued our quest.

And promptly got stuck, within sight of the other vehicles.

Now, "within sight" at this point was about.... 300 feet. Maybe. There was SO. MUCH. SNOW!
So me and my 4 other co-workers got ready to bunk up for the night. It was time to accept our fate. This time, that was it. There was no way to push out of this. Way too much snow.

BUT, a lady came along in a minivan, and she had a shovel! She lent us the shovel, and told us where to drop it off once we got to the next town (which was supposed to be a 2.5 hour drive from where we started. We started driving at 5pm. At this point, it was midnight. The next town was about 20 clicks away),
So we started shovelling. We could only go for a few minutes at a time due to the wind and -30 temperatures without getting serious frostbite, but we just kept on working.
Unfortunately, the wind worked harder than us. And only a little ways up, the lady was now stuck too.
We were determined, though, to get un-stuck, so we could help the lady out again, and pay it forward!

But there was no way out.

Suddenly, we saw headlights, coming from our destination. They pulled. PULLED the lady out. It was a truck! With a rope! We were saved!!

The man with the truck came up to us and offered us a tow. I've never been so happy to see a Toyota in my entire life. Turns out, this guy was the lady who offered us the shovel's husband. And he had just offered to plow us a way through the snowbank which loomed in front of us.

We were so excited! Finally, the nightmare was over!!

Nope.

We couldn't make it through. The car was too low. He had to pull us through the snowbank. I've never been so embarrassed about my car. Ever.

After that snowbank, there was another. And he towed us through without a word. From there on, he took point for the last 20 clicks with his wife behind us, sandwiching us between our two saviours.
We finally pulled up to a motel and, after paying 50 bucks more than we budgeted for, spent a nice, uneventful night at the super 8.

And in the end, the guy still wouldn't accept our money.

So what happens now?
One guy helped 5 others. Now we each, in turn, need to help 5 others. I think the biggest lessons we learn in life are the ones where you don't have any control over what happens anymore. Sometimes, you can't do everything yourself. Sometimes, it does come down to what other people are willing to do for you.

Maybe I just need to be the guy who's willing to do that for other people. Willing to stay out past 1am to help a few strangers in need, who are obviously incapable of helping themselves.

I will probably never see this man again. But at least I know that his story will live on forever.

Why was this blog created?

Basically, I decided to make this blog as a way to separate my personal life from my work life. A lot of things happen to a guy who just got out of highschool, and that all gets complicated and confusing for those of you who don't want to hear about teenage/young-adult drama. In the case you like that kind of thing, I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding my other blogspot (I'm going to advise you don't read it though, it's mainly there for just venting).
So if you've ever been curious about what the life of a travelling salesman is like, or if you were ever curious about whether or not we still exist, we do. We totally do.

Who am I?

My name is Steve. Yeah, that is the stereotype of a salesman now isn't it? I became a contract salesman the summer after I finished high school, and haven't looked back since.
What does a contract salesman involve? Here's our motto -
Any client, any product, any territory, any time (I like to add anyone in that as well). What do I mean anyone? I mean that I truly believe literally anyone is capable of doing this job. We have training, systems, and knowledge. As long as you stick to those things, you can't go wrong.

What's The Deal?

The deal is that this job rocks. And I wish everyone thought they could do it. Why don't they think that? It's straight commission. Yup. I'm a straight-commission travelling salesman named Steve. And yes, I wear a suit. So now that we have all the stereotypes covered, let's get tot the good part.

The Juice

I make, on average, $800 a week. That's not bad for a 19 year old guy with no post-secondary education and not doing manual labor. But it doesn't stop there.
I'm going to start building my team in about 2 weeks. Once I have 5 people on my team and hit certain requirements, I become an office owner. And I make about 10x what I make now. So that's the good part.
Now, onto the adventures!