Alright everyone. Tonight, my friend and I were cruising, and I suggested we go in a little off-road excursion just for fun. In my 2005 2.5 Legacy Outback, I attempted to get over some snow. Key word being attempted. I failed. She got stuck, so we tried digging her out and setting a blanket in front of and behind the tires multiple times to give he traction. This did not help. Everything we did just caused her wheels to spin. What especially sucked was that we were ten feet into the snow. We could legitimately see the gravel behind us 10 feet away, and the pavement another 20 feet beyond that. So, my friend called someone who lives in town and he came and gave us a tow in his Jeep Cherokee 4x4. We got out, but not without some surprises. I've had the battery and brake lights on for forever (6 months at least) so I wasn't worried about those. What I was worried about though were the check engine light and the cruise control light blinking. I looked in my owner's manual and couldn't find anything for why the cruise was blinking, and assumed I'd need a reader for the CEL to be able to pin down what was wrong there. When I didn't find anything in the manual about the cruise, I went online and found that the CEL and blinking cruise often come on together when A: there is either bad gas in the car, or B: the Traction Control Unit (TCU) is confused. I know it couldn't be bad gas because I'd drive 200 miles today already on the same tank, so I started looking at the TCU as the cause of the issue. My friend has had a similar thing happen to him in his 2010 Ford Fusion when he beached himself on snow, and he suggested an easy fix was to turn my traction control off and then on again, just to reset it. Unfortunately, I can't do that as I cannot seem to figure out a way to turn my traction control off like he can. My question for you guys is does this even seem right? I live in a small town, there is no Subaru dealership near me, and I'm still not entirely sure that the TCU is why the CEL turned on. Do you guys have any ideas? I think I can get my hands on a reader this Sunday and run some diagnostics, but until then, what are my option? All I know for sure is that the blinking cruise simply seems to indicate that there is something wrong enough with the car that it won't allow me to set the cruise. Back when it was just the brake and battery lights on, I could still set cruise, but not anymore. I will be the first to admit that this was a stupid idea and I was lucky I didn't need a tow truck to come get me instead. Thanks for any help guys. I appreciate it a lot.