Yesterday we had opera rehearsal - these parts are really the WORST I have ever seen, wrong notes everywhere, missing measures (many) and wrong transpositions...DD is very frustrated with things. So then the principle violist lost her keys (turned out they were locked in her car - which the concertmaster broke into with a hanger - fun)
So I'm headed home on the interstate (I drive about 30 minutes on that road every time). Since I'm driving my snazzy little convertible, it is very unpleasant going faster than 70 even with the back wind-shield, so I was moving from the left lane to the right because someone was coming up behind me. No problem - I checked the right lane and moved over (and I have GREAT visibility) when suddenly something blares their horn and sweeps by me at 80-90 mpi in the right lane.
Later J said this was probably someone coming on the on-ramp, which is sort of at the top of a hill so I may not have seen him when I checked back. Don't you just HATE people who don't check when they are merging onto the freeway???! So I jerk back to the left, apparently too hard and loose traction. Then I have no control of the steering and the car is sort of weaving back and forth (terrifying), but still in the left lane. Then I catch some of the dirt from the median and go into a spin. The people who stopped to see if I was ok (henceforth known as "the People") said I spun around 2-3 times, I have no idea. There was TONS of dust because it is so dry here.
I ended up in the oncoming traffic, facing the traffic, but on the right side of the yellow line (thank God) and totally unhurt. I didn't hit anything, and the People said we should roll the car into the median. I shifted into neutral and the car just rolled right into the middle, fortunately pretty flat and grassy (and really dusty) with no guard rails here. Again, I'm completely ok, but shaky. I tried to start the car and it started right up, but one of the People said there was gas coming out the back! So we stopped and I got out of the car.
They had called 911, and after 10 min a really nice woman came. I had called AAA and J. J was bringing the car trailer and we thought we would have the car towed to the mall parking lot (less than 5 miles, for which AAA is free) and then we'd load it onto our trailer where it was safer. But the officer was on her communication thing and they said the tow would be another 40 minutes so we decided it was flat enough for J to load it on the median.
J starts looking at the car (after he was very happy to see ME), and decides what was coming out the back was not gas, it was water! Later we figured out I had a gallon of water in the trunk from when I had radiator problems, and the spinning broke it. So actually the only damage to the car was that everything in the trunk was wet. Pretty fabulous considering! Anyway, J started the car and it seemed perfectly fine, so he gave me the choice of driving the car or the truck with the trailer. Yeah right. I had been standing around for about an hour, so I was feeling fine to drive, and we decided to meet at the next off-ramp gas station to regroup (about 2 mi).
Everything was fine, and aside from ingesting 3-4 pounds of dirt, I was in great shape! I did loose my hat. Think I'll get over that. Truly a miracle - just a few more inches into the oncoming traffic lanes and not only I but many others could have been in horrible shape. Just another crazy Freeway Philharmonic incident.
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