Well That Made for an Interesting Trip

WOW is all I can say at this point. I waited around all afternoon to go to the baseball game then head to Emily & Kyle's house to stay the night and catch my flight at 7:55 in the morning for Texas. Baseball game starts at 6:30, at 5:30 the Heavens open up and pour on Columbia. I look at the radar, solid storms back to the west all the way to Kansas, all moving east, softball has been postponed, so I call Emily and tell her I think I am headed that way. Obviously they aren't going to play baseball, especially since it's not a conference game. She says ok be careful. So I head east. It downpours all the way to about Lake St. Louis and Emily texts me that it is all black out her back door and to be careful. I call her and tell her I am finally not in downpours that it has cleared up, but I am driving directly into what she sees, but should be at her house in about 20 to 30 minutes. Well about 5-10 minutes later it has really gotten heavy and I am trying to stay out of the massive puddles. Apparently I hit one directly. All I remember is that I began to fishtail and I tried to steer out of it and that I was headed head first for the cement median, when I believe my tires finally caught and I begin to do circles. I kept waiting to hit the median, which I finally did, somewhere on the backside of my car and as I spun around I saw sparks and finally got turned the right direction and begin coasting down the interstate, but I have no brakes--can't stop, can't accelerate and I am shaking like crazy. I finally came to a stop at mile marker 229.0. I'm pretty sure this all started back around mile marker 228 or so. (I have never been so happy to have mile markers every .2 miles) I immediately call my sister and tell her I've wrecked my car and they are going to have to come get me. Then I call the motorist assistance number (that I just happened to see on a sign on the way here....I never remember it, but for some reason *55 was in my head--THANK GOODNESS) and tell the highway patrolman where I am and that I am in the left lane and can't go anywhere. At this point on I-70 it's 4 lanes wide and I am stuck on the very inside lane, where there isn't much of a median, so I am half in the median very close to the cement divider and half in the left lane (AKA the fast lane). Not really a comfortable feeling. After talking to the highway patrolman I called my mom. (Just a side note: Emily & Mom didn't really help my nerves much, I think I was still in shock that it had happened and they both freaked when I told them what happened...STAYING CALM would have been better in that situation).

So I sit and wait. The motorist assistant guy comes up behind me and asks me if I need help. I am like yes I need to be towed. In my head I am thinking yes I need your help, holy cow, do you think I sit in the middle of a lane on I-70 for fun? Obviously I haven't gotten out of the car and I think my whole back end is smashed in and that my tires are ruined, etc. I thought I hit the median HARD. (Later I realize that my brakes were locked and that's why I couldn't stop, go, and that I thought I was riding on my rims---pretty sure I am definitely going to need new brake pads as well). The guy asks me if I can get my car in neutral because if I can get it into neutral he can push me off the interstate. Not going to lie this freaks me out a little...being pushed off the interstate doesn't sound like fun. So I start my car back up and it does go into netural. So he tells me he is going to push me to the next exit and there is a gas station there. When he says he is going to push me over there...he wasn't lying. We went across 4 lanes of traffic a lot faster than I would have liked to. Along I-70 the motorist assistance trucks have the big flashing construction arrows on the top of their trucks, thankfully people follow instructions and go around them. I was scared to death he was going to get rearended and send me flying down the interstate. As we begin to exit the thought that I don't have brakes begins to go through my head. (I didn't have any earlier because they were locked--they released when I put my car in park, but I didn't realize this until later.) The exit is a downhill curve, I become concerned because I look in my rearview mirror and he isn't pushing me. I push as hard as I can on my brakes and begin to slow THANK GOODNESS!! I get to the bottom of the hill in the right turn lane and there are no cars coming, so I turn right, go across to the left turn lane, the light turns green as I get to and thankfully no cars are coming so I make it safely into a parking spot at the gas station.

At this point I get out and start walking around my car and can find NOTHING wrong with my car. No wonder the guy thought I was an idiot sitting on the side of the road. I tell him that I hit the median but can't find anything wrong with my car. So he gets out his flashlight and we walk around the car looking for something. I knew I had seen sparks so we decided that I must have hit one of my tires and the hubcap caused sparks. I turned off my car and then started it back up and no warning lights come on, so he thought I would be able to drive it. He gives me the number for the tow truck in case I need it. I tell him I am going to wait on my sister and brother-in-law to get there and will make a decision then. I tell him thanks so much and he goes on his way.

So I sit and wait for Emily & Kyle, who are having to creep along because the storm has now reached where they are and they can't see. They get to the gas station and we begin looking at the rear end of my car. Emily finds a scratch on the bumper and then we realize that the bottom half of my receiver hitch is all scratched up. It is black and the bottom half of it was all silverish-brown and it looked like mud on it rather than scratches. This is where the sparks come from. My car was running fine and I finally made it to their house. The trip that usually takes me around 2 hours, took over 3 to get here. I knew it would take more time because of the rain, but didn't really plan on spending part of it doing circles, sitting on the interstate and being pushed off the highway by a pickup.

Thankfully I am fine and amazingly so is my car. I guess I just actually brushed the median as I was spinning around. I either did 2 or 3 360s, I am not really sure, but I am pretty sure I did 3. The whole time I just kept waiting to hit the median and roll over onto the west board traffic or be shot across all the east bound traffic. I definitely had an angel watching over me.

Just a side note---this is now the 2nd time I have hydroplaned and spun around on the interstate. My senior year of high school, me and four other friends were coming back from a wedding in Snyder and around Lubbock--which floods like crazy--we hydroplaned (we were in Elaine's 4 Runner) were thrown off the road into the median, hit ruts where another car had run off the road which thre us back onto the highway, spun around and stopped across the two lanes of I-27. Pure craziness. Both times I have somehow dodged all the cars going around me. In fact tonight I do not remember seeing a single car go around me.

I am so thankful that I am safe and that my car made it through ok.