I Cheated Death On This Day

You should be thankful you are alive every single day.  On this day in particular, I'm sure I cheated death and I don't know why, other than a Godly hand reached down and pushed a car off the road.  

It started off nicely enough, except the 10-15 mph winds were a pain in the butt the first 3 hours.  It pushed me right and left making for jaw clenching and a death grip on my steering wheel.  I WAS able to partake of a cookie or two that Patsy offered as a going away present.  I think it gave me strength for what was to come.  I'm also sure these came from Bill's stash, so thank you both for the yummy snacks.

They lasted all the way to Indio.  Worse than the side wind was the head winds that kept my poor truck working itself to death trying to keep up the pace.  I kept having to turn the cruise control off and watch the speedometer like a hawk to keep from getting run over.

At long last with lots of mountaintop snow, we entered Indio.  I kept looking for a place to stop and give the kids a rest, but it was not to be found.
 

Of course it was much prettier in person than these pictures.  With the wind, I wasn't about to take my hands off the wheel for picture taking, so this is it.

Little did I know what was in store.  I turned off on Highway 147 and headed to Yucca Valley and the turnoff to Barstow and Highway 58 to Bakersfield.

There I was, about halfway along the two lane road before my turnoff.  It looked like this drawing.  A two lane double yellow line on a corner.  I'm going 55 mph, followed by a tractor trailer rig a bit behind me.

I saw the black car (orange in this picture) pull out into my lane to pass the two vehicles in front of it.  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  I'M RIGHT HERE!!!!  I barely had time to hit the brakes before saying "I'm DEAD".  I couldn't go left because of the two cars.  I couldn't go right because these roads are very narrow with deep sand shoulders.  I'm going 55 mph!!!  I looked down to see 50 mph and knew the trailer was going to go straight through my truck, killing us all.

The entire thing took less than two seconds, so there was nothing to do but watch.  To my amazement, in literally one second when the car was less than 30 feet in front of me, it swerved to my right.  I braced for impact.  He missed my truck.  I braced for impact on the trailer.  He missed my trailer.  I don't know how that could possibly be since the shoulder isn't as wide as one lane.

I lost sight of him as he went by the right side of my trailer.  I was still slowing down when I remembered the big truck behind me.  I don't know if he hit the truck or if he hit one or both of those two cars he was trying to pass, but when he overcorrected (as I looked in my left mirror) there was a huge explosion of sand and dirt into the air.  

I don't know how he possibly missed me.  I hit my hazard lights and kept going slow while calling 911.  The line was busy.  No kidding, it took six tries to get someone on the phone.  Send an ambulance ... it's a really bad wreck.  I told the dispatcher I couldn't find a place to pull over and he said to just continue on my way.  He would send help.  He took my info and said someone may call me at some point to be a witness.  I need a drink ... a BIG drink!!!  

I felt guilty for driving on, but I did what I was told.  Five minutes later as I'm still on the same highway, the ambulance and two big fire trucks went by, lights flashing.  I was the luckiest person in the world on this day.

I drove another 15 miles to the stop sign before pulling over on Barstow Road to let Cooper out.  He was seat belted in so he didn't fall, but I rather imagine Jonathan hit the floor of his cage.  He's fine now and talking as I type.

Definitely not something I ever want to repeat.  Obviously the guy is an idiot, but I hope he survived, if only because he saved my life by jerking the wheel to the left and missing my truck and trailer.

From there I was on to Barstow for fuel at $4.99 a gallon.  I didn't care one bit.  I finally arrived in Bakersfield and breathed a big sigh of relief.  Pizza helped.

I'm off really early this morning trying to beat the storm headed my way.  Hopefully it's a day full of NO excitement at all!!