Just coming down from the summit of a mountain pass, the car startedsliding, spun around, and hit the concrete barrier in the middle of the freeway head on. Spun around again, and hit again- this time in the back.
After first assessing that there were no injuries, we offered a prayer of gratitude.
The car sort of limped off to the side of the road where we hopped out in the snow to see the damage. The front end of the car was quite literally DRAGGING on the ground. Back end a bit squashed as well.
Realizing that we were most definitely not in a very safe place on the side of the freeway, and realizing that the car, for now at least, as still somewhat drivable, we decided that our best option would be to try andmake it to Beaver (the next town which was about 11 miles away). A prayer wassaid, and we literally plowed snow with thefront end of our car as we s l o w l y made our way into a Beaver gas station.
It was a Sunday, and our insurance agent informed us that for 'some reason' it appeared that not only was there no rental car place open any where close, but all the auto shops were also closed (only in Utah....). Our only option was to stay in a hotel in Beaver until the morning, or somehow get to the St. George airport, where there was rental caravailability.
The van was becoming a spectacle. People were gettingout of their cars to take pictures. Seriously. Embarrassing.
Jason wrangled up some tin-snippers, and with the help of the boys they were able to cut OFF the front end of the car so it looked like this:
Said another prayer, and headed s l o w l y again out to the freeway headed for St. George.
There's no reason we SHOULD have made it all the way to St. George. After the van was looked at by the auto collision center and declared a 'total loss', we were again reminded of angels watching over us.
All the engine mounts had been broken. The frame of the car was bent. Radiator smashed in. Every sensor and light ON (check engine. Check brakes. Check oil. No airbags. Low tire pressure. Seriously, you name it, the sensor light was on).
The trip was slow. Andloud. There were a few 'stray' pieces of the front end that husband couldn't quite cut away with the snips, so things were rubbing against the tires the whole way down.
It looked pathetic I'm sure.
But, we made it. All the way to the St. Georgeairport.
And rented a newer van.
The kids loved it. And wanted us to buy it. It had TWO TV screens. Awesome.
The crash was inconvenient. And expensive. My heart started wishing that the concrete barrier hadn’t been there in the first place. Wouldn’t it had been better to just slide into the median and gotten stuck in the snow, instead of hitting a slab of concrete? There wouldn’t have been near the damage (if any) to the car. Perhaps we mighthave needed a tow-truck to pull us out, but other than that - that damage would have been minimal, and we could have continued on our trip much easier and cheaper than we are now.
Of course as we were coming home from our vacation later that week, - children and parents alike were eager to see the ‘site’ of our crash earlier in the week (remember, it was stormy, and visibility was not good. We knew about how many miles outside of a certain town we were when we crashed, but that’s about all)
Imagine our audible gasps as we approached the crash site. We hadn’t realized that the place we wrecked into the concrete barrier was a place where the Freeway is divided. The North bound lanes lie 30 - 50 feet BELOW the South bound lanes.
That same concrete barrier, the one that I complained about causing somuch inconvenience and trouble, was the same one that saved our lives.
I was much humbled that day as we drove the rest of the way home. Thinking about a loving Heavenly Father, who kept our family safe with a concrete barrier. And couldn't help but think of how muchsafety there is in the gospel.
Well goodness....that story went and got a little wordier than I had planned (is that a sign that I talk too much????). If I tackle everything else that has happened since then, this could potentially be the longest blog post on record.
So......I think I'll end there.
Stay tuned for more adventures coming soon :)
Oh BTW....just for the record - even after all that - we still had a fabulous vacation. Disneyland was fun as ever. And the beach was completely awesome.
