A Car Adventure

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I was in the car near the airport with neighbors Shawn, Bob, and Logan when Shawn’s phone rang. It was daughter Lise calling from Denmark to tell us there had been a bad accident between us and home. I’m pleased that Lise keeps watch over me, but I don’t know how she does it. Shawn was driving, so Logan and Bob looked at phones from time to time to check on traffic. We continued to the restaurant, thinking our eating dinner would give time for the wreck to be removed. We were there a little over an hour.

We knew the road was a mess. A dump truck had a flat tire, causing the driver to lose control. It dumped gravel across the center divider and onto a Corvette convertible, and the truck burst into flames. Both drivers escaped and were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The truck fire was so intense that it melted the roadway. Shawn and Bob agreed we should try the back way, but everyone else had that idea, too. Traffic did not move! We returned to the interstate, knowing it was going to take time with only one lane open on our side.

We crawled and stopped, crawled and stopped. I read instructions on the side of a tank truck. In a heavy box mounted underneath was a sign that said, “Instructions enclosed.” I have no idea what I could have learned from those instructions, but you can tell there no speed involved on the road. Shawn called neighbor D and asked her to let the dog out, because we were still 15 miles and an hour away. Poor dog. At least we could talk about our problem! Shawn and Logan could see the damage to the road much better than I could as we drove slowly past it. Immediately we sped away on the empty road, knowing there were still hundreds of vehicles inching along behind us. A trip that should have taken took 30 minutes lasted four long hours! We got home at 9:10.

All of us knew complaining would not get us home any sooner. We chatted, commented on vehicles around us, and watched lovely clouds in the sky. Shawn and Bob were teasing each other, and I said aloud that she could put some ice cubes down his back. She still had her drink from the restaurant, and I realized she had done the deed when Bob slapped at his back. Oh! No! I couldn’t get the words out fast enough. “I’m sorry. One of these days I’m going to need Bob to fix a leak for me! What will I do then? I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

They laughed at me, back pedaling in a car that wasn’t moving at all.

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Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

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40 thoughts on “A Car Adventure”

  2. Anne you are really having an adventuresome time these days

    but I’m glad Logan was along for the ride. School has started here and he will be soon I’m sure.

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  4. That’s amazing how Lise knows where you are and that you likewise know her whereabouts thanks to your phones. That was quite a fire and smoke as well. We have so many bad accidents anymore that driving is NOT pleasurable in the least and this is in clear, dry weather.

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      1. No, you don’t know. I never drove enough to like it to be honest as I took the bus for decades when I worked … walk to the end of the street, turn the corner and the bus stop was there and dropped me off in front of the building where I worked. When I last worked in downtown Detroit (before Robb/I moved), it was about $14.00/day unless you parked by the month and that was still costly.

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          1. Yes, it was wonderful – 25-30 minutes, a little longer if the bridge was up due to a freight … then it could be up to a half-hour later, depending on when they raised the bridge, so I always caught two buses earlier when the freighters were running. I got a lot of reading done in those commutes.

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              1. Yes, it was a great time to read and coming home, I’d wait at the bus stop and open my book, not actually reading it, but so I could sit down and start reading so no one “visited” all the way home.

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                  1. Thank you! The woman next door to me has gotten another dog, same make/model and it has already started to whine when she is gone. Not as much as the first dog, but it is already fast becoming a pain. I had hoped it was a guest, but this is week three and I suspect it is a permanent fixture. It was an occasional petite whine the first week, but it is “finding itself” now …. oh joy.

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                    2. When I peeked in the window after hearing whimpering and whining over the course of those days the A/C was turned off, I was horrified. Same breed, which have terrible separation anxiety. She knows it as I’ve heard her go outside after locking the door to leave for work and the dog would whine and she’dyell “knock it off!” So you get another one – of course it doesn’t do that when she is inside sitting on its tail all night/weekend long.

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                    4. Yes, I took photos of it this morning as I need to find a handyman – no luck so far in that regard. I have some masonry work I need done, but figured I could get a mason for that, but now either a glass installer or a handyman. So I’ll send the picture to them so they can see the damage. I’m fed up with her in many ways.

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  5. That was quite a fire and smoke as well. We have so many bad accidents. I ask you where’s & when? Where you going?

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    1. The neighbors were picking up something in the city, and I went along for the ride. In the mountains, there are not always alternate ways to get somewhere. There was a direct way to get home and one back way on small roads. Both ways were totally clogged.

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      1. Thank you so much. Now Iam so happy.. You answered me. I understand that road ways are totally clogged.

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  7. Your ability to make everyday occurances more fun continues to make me smile. When I’m stuck in traffic later, I’ll be searching for instructions to read on commercial vehicles around me!

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  11. It was good to hear the drivers were able to get out. That was for sure a long time to get home, but it seems you all made the best of it. I am glad you all made it home safely finally.

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  12. I am glad you are fine as are the drivers. We got stopped for four hours one Thanksgiving. It was unseasonably warm and everyone got out of our cars and chatted. We even designated a ladies’ and men’s area in the woods for our bodily needs!

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