The fun of Travel

So here I am, cruisin' up I35, minding my business, that is until mother nature rears her ugly head. Yeah, it was only rain, so it shouldn't be a big deal right? I even slowed down to 60 for the occasion, I do that now that I am older. The rain was really coming down now. I had just been passed by another car thinking everything was fine. It was until my rear end started to drift to the right, you see, now I am not going straight down the freeway any more. More like driving down the road at a 10 degree angle. So I straightened that out only to end up driving at the opposite angle. As my car spun the other way, I took a quick look in the rear view mirror to see about 4 - 5 cars, not far behind me at that. All I could think was "Well, if none of them hit me, this will be a success". One more spin of the rear end and off to the ditch I go finishing with marvelous 360. I hope those folks behind me enjoyed the show.

So here I am sitting in the median on I35 with one word coming to mind. I won't post the word to keep this kid friendly, but go ahead and use your imagination. All right, you guessed it, the four letter word was "darn" ;-)

What's next? How do I get out. Easy right? Just drive right out. Yeah, that is what I thought too. Problem is, neither forward nor reverse move me anywhere. You see, the median is like a small river during these little down pours. I opened my door to find about 9 inches of water flowing by. What now. Obvious, being a guy, try forward and reverse 15 more times to be sure this is not getting me anywhere and make sure the front tires are fully buried in to the soft ground. So here I am, pondering my predicament for a few minutes when, the phone rings, It's my wife. She has impeccable timing. "How are you doing?" she asks. Do I tell her I am sitting in the median and freak her out, or do I lie to save her. I can tell her later after I have been released from my muddy mess? Since I am not good at lying to my wife, I tell her the truth. "I am sitting in the ditch". At first, disbelief, but eventually she believes I am not joking. You have to understand, I kid a lot, so I understand her skepticism. While talking to her a good citizen stops to offer help. I graciously accept and off we go in his car to find the nearest town in search of a tow. South does not prove promising, so we turn around knowing that Albert Lea is only a mile up the road from my car. As we reach the buried mess we notice it has been discovered by a state trooper. We pull over, and I thank the gentleman, offering him compensation for his kindness, he politely denies. I thank him for the 10th time and head on over to the trooper.

To end this long story, since the rest is pretty mundane, not that the previous wasn't. The trooper calls a tow truck, tow truck arrives, pulls me out. Accepts compensation and away I go.

I am not sure how this happened, only two short months ago I drove all the way from the north end of Iowa to the south end in a blizzard, and not a mark on me. Now I get taken out by rain. Yep, my pride is a bit bruised. Oh well, so is life. You never know what is going to get you in the end.

So be it, that was my excitement for the day, I'm out,

-JbJ