Road Kill

Last night Allyson, Max and I were in a car accident returning home from an amazing wedding and reunion of sorts that we attended over the Holiday Weekend. Allyson was driving down a hill on I-68 at about 70 miles an hour (the speed limit in WV) and lost control of our car when she swerved out of the right lane to avoid a deer carcass. The car smacked against the divider and was knocked back into the right lane on a 45 degree angle from the shoulder of the road.

Max was sleeping at the time but the impact of the crash and the screaming of my wife woke him up and he started to cry. At that point I got out of the car and told Allyson to drive to the shoulder so we could get the the car off of the highway, but it wouldn't drive because of damage to the fender and the left front tire. I then tried to push it off the road, but that didn't work either. Allyson then told me to grab Max and get him out of the car and then she tried to get out, but her door wouldn't open because there was some damage there too. She unbuckled her seat belt and got out through the passenger side. I think some of us might have been in shock at this point.

At least two people saw the accident take place (from a safe distance) and pulled over to help us out. Nice folks out here in West Virginia... I eventually got into the car and was able to pull it off to the side of the road. A WV State Trooper showed up about 20 minutes later and called a tow truck and we waited with him in his cruiser for another 30 minutes or so.

After the tow truck guy came we found out there was enough damage done to the car that it had to be towed and because yesterday was a holiday there wasn't anyplace to get our car fixed. The State Trooper then took us to a hotel at the next exit and 24 hours later, hear I sit sipping a delicious cup of hot chocolate while I type on a computer provided by the friendly folks at the Holiday Inn.

I'm not exactly sure why, but for some strange reason I can't sleep tonight. Either I'm just starting to process my thoughts and feelings or I had too much unsweetened ice tea with my dinner.

I'm completely amazed and grateful that the three of us walked away from this thing unscathed and for the most part our beautiful gray Ford Focus is completely intact. Just another example of why you can never go wrong with an American made car.
I guess I'll go back upstairs and watch my wife and son peacefully sleep for a little while. I'll catch up with all of you real soon.

Update:
It seems that I slightly miscalculated the damage that our beloved Focus received crashing into the guard rail at 75 miles per hour on Sunday night and as a result we're still here in Morgantown on Wednesday.