MIA

Ok, I have been missing in action for a couple of months, but not a lot has happened.   The most exciting story to tell is about my 4th of July fiasco.

July 4, 2008 – I told my mom that Todd & I would be driving separately, from them, to my uncle’s place on Smith Lake. Well, about 9:15 she calls and practically begs us to ride with them. I think it was because she didn’t want to be the only traumatized person in the car with my dad. You see, my dad is a maniac when it comes to driving. He truly believes that since he hasn’t died or had a serious car wreck in his 40 years of driving – that he’s invincible. What he fails to realize is that God has had travel mercies placed on him for all of those 40 years! I feel like one of these days, God might decide to remind him of that and I don’t want to be in the car when it happens! Although, I think it has already happened. Anyway, I gave in and Todd & I rode with them to Smith Lake. I thought, “It can’t be that bad and I’ll be saving gas $$”.

The rents swing by and pick us up at my house about 10 am and off we go. Things are going pretty good, but I keep noticing that my mom will place her hand on my dad’s arm every time she feels we’re going a little too fast. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just makes him mad. Todd will look over at me every once in awhile and mouth, “You’re dad is driving really fast”. Please keep in mind that we have a boat attached to a Yukon, going down a 2 lane, curvy road through rural Morgan and Winston counties at about 60-70 miles an hour. Not only is he driving fast, but he will turn to look at my mom while he’s talking and inevitably run off the road a little. AGAIN, with a boat attached!

Well, we make it about 1 mile from the boat launch in record time – 1 hour from Decatur to Cullman, with a boat attached. So, at 11 o’clock we are 1 mile from the boat launch when I notice the Yukon shaking much differently than before. As I turn around, I can see the boat trailer shaking violently and I notice the right tire on the trailer is very low. As I am screaming this to my dad, the tire blows! YES, it blows out. Luckily I had given my dad just enough heads up for him to slow down, slightly, and gain control of the wheel before the tired shredded. By God’s good grace, we were right in front of a huge gravel parking lot and were able to pull the boat on one tire and one rim into the parking lot and off of the curvy road.

Now, do you think my dad has a spare? NO – remember. He’s never had a blow out on a boat trailer so it’s impossible that it would ever happen. Reasonable logic, right? So, on the 4th of July we’re sitting 1 mile from the lake and cannot find anyone to help. My uncle has no reception at his place so we can’t get him. My sister hadn’t left Hartselle yet, so she’s driving around Hartselle and Decatur looking for a place that might have a tire -with no luck. Meanwhile, this sweet young man comes running down the road to check on us b/c he saw the blow out. He tells us of the only place he knows that might be able to help us. It’s a junk yard about 7 miles down the road.

So, my dad unhooks the boat – leaves Todd and I to look after it while he and my mom drive to the junk yard in the hopes of finding something – anything! I would venture to say that 60 cars passed us sitting on the side of the road and the only one that stopped to check on us was the Sherrif’s deputy of Winston county. He was very helpful and actually went to see if he could find us a tire to at least borrow. But, my dad was able to get the junk yard man to hook us up. The ended up having to “make” a tire onto our old rim. My mom stayed on the phone with me the whole time b/c she said this place made Deliverance looke like Paris! I don’t know what we would have done if that guy had decided to kidnap them! You can’t go very far with a boat that’s not in the water and that’s all Todd & I had.

Finally my dad comes screaming around the curve and pulls into the gravel parking lot and nearly slides right into the front of the boat! Gosh – if I had only known what the rest of the day was going to be like!!! So, we get the boat hooked up and we’re on our way when I notice that this tire is way too low!!! So, we just pray and cross our fingers until we can reach water and unload the boat. We actually unloaded at Houston b/c it was closer. So, I drove my mom and Todd to my uncles place, by water, while my dad went to buy some Fix a Flat and put more air in the tire. By the time I made it to Yellow Creek and we unloaded the boat my dad was at Crantz ready to be picked up. We went back down and picked him up and returned to my uncles at approximately 2 o’clock. YES – we left Decatur at 10 and got to the lake at 2!

We were starving, but too hot & sweaty to eat. So, Todd & I jumped in the water and cooled off for a little while then went and ate a bite. When we came back outside, I notice that the sky is beginning to get dark to the north west of us. Todd and I run down to the water and jump on my uncle’s jet ski b/c we are determined to get some lake time in!! I take us on a ride out of the slough and out into the main part of the river. It’s Todd’s first time and he’s terrified. He just keeps yelling at me to slow down – it was so much fun. Well, we run back to my uncle’s and swap places and he takes off. We are headed back out of the slough when the coldest fastest wind hits us and makes us stop in our tracks. All we can see are boats and jet skis galore heading back into the slough – we look behind us and it is so dark!! So, I have to let Todd, the inexperienced jet ski driver, get us back to my uncles without being run over or running over someone else. All I can say is that is was quite an experience. We make it back just in time for the lightening and thunder to start and then the rain begins.

We stay couped up on the porch for about 2 more hours until my dad says its time to leave b/c we don’t know the condition of the trailer tire and he doesn’t want to deal with it in the dark. We load up and get back to Crantz and I wait to see if he comes back with the trailer and he does. The tire looks good, we load up the boat and we’re headed home.

We make it about 2 miles down the road when I hear this awful screeching noise and my mom starts screaming, “Richard – the boat is loose, the boat is loose!”, and I turn around to see the boat and trailer all over the road. My dad slams on the breaks and all I see is this boat headed right for the back windshield of the Yukon. Todd is screaming Oh S***, my heart is beating a million miles an hour, my dad is saying, “Oh no!” and my mom is just covering up her face! The boat hits the back of the car, propelling us forward like we’ve just been rear-ended by an 18 wheeler and then we come to a stop. Thank God the boat is still ON the trailer and the safety chains held to the car. What had happened was that the trailer came unhooked from the ball that sticks out of the back of the car!! YES – again this had never happened to my dad in his whole life. All I have to say is that on July 4, 2008 my 57 year old dad experienced many firsts in his life and I was there to witness them all!!!!!

It look all 4 of us to lift the trailer back up so my dad could back the car to the trailer and hook it up again. Once that was done, I just wanted to be home. I just prayed the whole way home for travel mercies!!! We made it back to Decatur and Todd and I were so emotionally drained that we didn’t even go to see the fireworks. We were just so glad to be home and alive. About 45 minutes later I get a call from my mom letting me know that they made it back to Athens, alive.

So, with all of that said you can see why I am so hesitant to ride with my parent’s to Florida this coming Friday for our vacation. Todd is meeting us in the middle of the week, so it would be really silly for us to have 3 cars down there. My mom is trying to talk my dad into letting me drive, but he says that we are treating him like he is senile and unable to drive – I would agree, wouldn’t you? haha

Now that I’ve written this novel, everyone should have enough to last them until I get back from vacation. I have no doubt there will be more stories to share after next week!

Pray for us, please!