Surviving my first accident.

(warning this is really long, it's mostly for me as I want a record of it)

I should win an award for totaling the first car I have ever wrecked. Actually, Jordan should win an award for not screaming at me after I wrecked her new car.

Okay, the story? After getting news on March 11th that grandma schroeder fell and broke her hip and might not make it out of surgery Mom, Dad and I decided on March 12th, that we were going to fly out to see her before she went in for surgery. After talking to Jordan, who had flew from Baltimore to Houston on the morning of the 12th, she decided that she was going to drive (17 hours ALONE) to meet us in Chicago the morning of the 13th to see Granny before she went in. As much as we were terrified for her safety she did it and did it straight through, she is a serious trooper. We got to see grandma before surgery and she came through. We spent Saturday visiting with family, eating at Giordano's and shopping, it was a good time.

Since I was going to be spending a portion my spring break (started on the 12th) in Houston with Jordan I told her I would just cancel my flight back home and to Houston and drive back with her. We got in the car Sunday around 1130am and were cruising. We decided to stop about 0230 on Monday morning to rest for a little bit at a gas station. After waking up at 0500 it was my turn to drive. We got back on I10-W, only about 2.5 hours from Houston, we were going to make it back in time for Jordan to be in class. Well, about 30 minutes later I hit standing water and hydroplaned, going 70 miles an hour.

I don't really know what happened next, I dont remember if I took my foot of the gas, pumped the break, tried to regain control of the car, i'm really not sure. I do know that we hit the left guardrail, then the right, then the left again and finally came to a stop at the bottom of a ditch, probably a 60 degree incline down. The car started smoking so the first thing I said to jordan was we have to get out. She was not ready, she had been sleeping so she didn't have her glasses on, she needed to find them. We got out of the car into the rain, trudged through the mud up back up to the freeway. Jordan lost one of her favorite new shoes, so she was standing in the cold rain, on grass that we later learned had been rained on for 4 days straight, calling 911 to have someone come help us. Apparently some nice motorist who saw us going back and forth on the highway decided to call it in but no one stopped to help us. Granted, unless they saw us go down into the ditch they would have never known we were there, you couldn't see us from the road, especially in the dark.

The paramedics came, and I was not impressed. They asked us if the airbags off, and that was it. They then instructed us to sign the consent forms that we were refusing transport to the hospital. They never asked me if I was hurt, they never took vital signs, they never asked if I had tingling, NOTHING! I was seriously so floored, if I had not been shaking so bad and practicly in shock I might have told her how unimpressed I was with her. Granted, they were about to get off shift, but guess what?!?! I WAS JUST IN A WRECK GOING 70, I COULD HAVE BEEN SERIOUSLY HURT!!!

Anyways. with that being said, after they left and the nice sherriff and later state trooper decided to let us sit in the very uncomfortable back seat of their cruisers. The state trooper got to write me a nice ticket for going to fast for the elements and Jordies little car?!?! not driveable. We had it towed to Bubba's in Jennings, LA, and had to come up with a way to get to Houston. The first person we saw at Bubbas offered us his personal home to get cleaned up in (yes, we looked like WRECKS!), and then someone came and picked us up and took us to the Enterprise Rental Car place in town. They did not have any economy or compact cars so it was going to cost us over $300/week for a rental car. Jordan, having compassion on me, said no thank and she got on the phone to call in a favor to Scott and Sheesh, the saints she lives with in Texas. The nice man from Enterprise closed down his shop and drove us over to a Holiday Inn right off the freeway, gave us his phone numbers in case we needed anything, and wished us luck. The nice lady at the Holiday Inn was gracious enough to let us sit in the lobby of the hotel until our ride got there. By this point I was thinking my toes might fall off because I was wearing shoes and socks and they were so wet and so cold. After about 2 hours we got back in touch with Scott and he thought he would be there in another 2 hours of so (so by about 1330, keep in mind the accident occured at 0530, so my toes had been wet for a LONG time). There was a Walmart across the street so Jordan and I decided to trudge on over there to find me some shoes. We found me some pink fake-me-out crocks, jordan a cute red dress, and got Jordan a cute hair cut!! then we went and loitered at the Burger King until Scott rescued us!!!! Turns out Scott was in excrutiating abdominal pain so he asked Jordan to drive home. Before we finished our journey we had to go get all our luggage from the car. I decided to take pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Point of impact #1

Point of impact #2

We were so unbelievably grateful to be safe,
for Scott and Sheesh to have rescued us and
thrilled to finally be leaving Jennings, LA,

The first 2 hours back to Houston were relatively uneventful, then it happened. We got stuck in dead stopped traffic for 2 hours!!!!!! literally, we got out of our car and walked around for an hour and a half! I felt TERRIBLE!! Scott was in such pain and we just wanted to get home. Turns out there had been an awful acciden with casualities, I again thanked my Heavenly Father for the safety He provided us. We finally made it home, Scott went straight to bed and Jordan and I sat and talked with Sheesh. I thouroughly enjoyed the rest of my vacation and will blog about that later but just to finish this story. . . turns out the car is totaled, lots of money in damage, the day after we found out Jordan went and bought a new car.

There you have it, the story of how our 17 hour drive turned in to a 36 hour drive. Now for some personal thoughts. . .

• As bad as I hurt, as awful as I felt for having wrecked Jordans car and for having inconvenienced the Mosers, Jordan and I both walked away with one bruise on our right knees, sore backs and necks, I had some red ant bites and Jordan had a really sore hip.

• I wish I had taken a picture of where the car came to a stop, then you could partially understand my gratitude that we had not rolled the car down the incline, but just take my word for it.

• Heavenly Father knew that we could handle at that point. I was on Spring Break, Jordan was just coming off of Spring Break, Scott could come pick us up, we could deal with it. He knew it would not be too much for us to handle. He also knew that Jordan did not have good health insurance, hence, (my personal belief) no injuries.

• I have SOOOOOOO grateful for Jordan. For her comforting words as I freaked out standing on the side of the road, for her never yelling at me, or even appearing angry with me. I was already feeling so dang crappy, that it was such a blessing to not have her upset with me. She is amazing.