Accident

We went camping over the New Years weekend to Felton, near Santa Cruz.  On New Year's Eve we had just left home all excited about our weekend ahead of us and our 5th wheel got a flat tire, completely blew up on us and shredded to pieces.  Thankfully, we didn't get in an accident and it wasn't raining.  Michael got the spare tire on and we went to the closest tire dealer to where we were, in Concord, and got a new tire and was back on the road within two hours or so.

Had a lovely weekend, it rained the whole time.  Saturday night there was a huge storm and thunder around 1:00 pm.  I was asleep and did not wake up from it, that is, until Michael woke me up to ask me if I was awake and if I'd heard it, to which I replied, "no."  I never did hear it, for it only made one large boom sound and that was the end of it even though it continued to pour.   I love the patter of the rain on the rooftop.  It lulled me back to sleep.

We were camping with my sister in law, Cathy, and her boyfriend, Vince.  They arrived one night before us, on Thursday night in their camper.  Pretty much the whole time it rained, which if you know me, I absolutely love camping in the rain.  I love the rain, period.  We're all cozy in our campers, in the rain.  Drinking hot cocoa and playing cards, and eating.  Isn't that what camping is all about, the food?

Okay, so on to the accident.  We're heading home on east bound 80 last night around 3 pm or so.  The traffic was somewhat heavy but not super slow or anything like that.  We were moving along at a good pace.  About 2 minutes before the accident Michael had been trying to get over into a slower lane (we were in the lane next to the fast lane) but a truck wouldn't let him in.  So, we were still in that lane at the time of the accident.  Cars were going pretty fast all around us.  A woman began to move into our lane in front of us and just then the car ahead of her stepped on her brakes for no apparent reason.  There was no one in front of her to cause her to brake.  Of course, the woman moving into our lane just ahead of us had to brake and Michael didn't have enough time to stop, so we slammed into her and she into the woman that braked in the first place.  Did you get all that? 

So there we were, the three of us, in the middle of the freeway on interstate 80, in commute hour traffic.  The front of our truck buckled up and I was not able to open my door.  Which I did not want to get out anyway because of the danger all around us.  In a short time the highway patrol officer came.  He was able to call for help to stop traffic for all of us to get off the freeway safely, which we did.  I was pretty shaken but had calmed down enough and was able to call for a tow truck to come get our truck.  Thank you AAA.  They towed it for us all the way to our home town which was about 50 minutes from where the accident occurred.

Michael had to unhook the 5th wheel from the truck before the tow truck could take our truck.  Here we were until 6:30 p.m. or so waiting inside our camper playing cards, waiting for our friend, Steve, to come pick us and our trailer up to bring us home.  He was the only one we knew that had a 5th wheel like us and had the capability to tow our trailer.  What a lifesaver he is!  We're going to get him a nice gift certificate to dinner for being such a dear friend and helping us in need.

Thankfully, no one was hurt in the accident.  Just a little frazzled nerves.  In the meantime, we are without our truck, not knowing if they are going to total it or repair it.  We really don't know if the engine is damaged at this point.  The truck did not sound very good when we drove it off the freeway to the side of the exit ramp in Berkeley.  We should know something within a couple of days.