7:10 am- I drive to work for the day in Brent's (completely paid for) Explorer.
1:15 pm- I leave work early for Blaine's holiday party
2:30 pm- I check Blaine out early after his party and we run a few errands then head home
5:00 pm- I go back to the school to get Aislin from ASP
5:15 pm- I hit a patch of ice on the road in our neighborhood. I swerve right, hit a curb, over correct and swerve left up into someone's side walk in front of their yard. My heart is racing. We get back on the road and slowly inch our way home.
5:26 pm- I see that I missed a call at 5:05 from my neighbor asking me if I could pick her son up from ASP. I call her back. She tells me she has been stuck in the same spot on the interstate for an hour and that traffic was not moving. ASP closes at 6:00. While we are talking traffic starts to move. I tell her that the neighborhood is icy and ask if she can have someone else get Ben. She says she thinks she can make it since traffic is moving. I put dinner in the oven.
6:06 pm- She tells me she is stuck again and that no one is answering the phone at the school.
I have to make a decision. She needs me to get Ben, yet I know if I leave the house I am putting us at risk as I know how icy the roads are. I know that if we go out we could wreck, or at the least end up in someone's yard.
6:15 pm- I pull dinner from the oven, tell the kids to get their shoes and coats on and we load up.
We make it out of the neighborhood without any instances. I am driving at a rate of 5 mph. I notice that on the route I would typically take back from their school (a 5 minute drive) cars have been abandoned left and right. People are actually out walking! The problem is, people have abandoned their cars in the road! There is no way we will get around all those cars to get back into the neighborhood.
6:26 pm- We get Ben from school. I decide to take an alternate route home that I know is longer, but I am just hoping it is not blocked. We make pretty good time going this way. In fact, I decide to stop off at Kroger and fill up on gas to save me a trip later.
7:26 pm- I realize that we haven't moved the car in over 20 minutes. The kids are doing fine and I decide to take a few pictures of them being goofy.
8:10 pm- We still are not moving. Now I am getting concerned after I see people all around me parking their cars and getting out to walk. Or crawl, in some cases. I have seen several people slip and some decide to get on their hands and knees in order to cross the road.
8:20 pm- We finally move to the front of the line of traffic. It appears we are facing "No Man's Land". I tell the kids to hold on tight and ease my foot off the brake. We are moving ever so slowly. I glance back and notice the driver behind me is too close.
8:24 pm- I hit a patch of ice and swerve right, I instinctively put my foot on the brake and swerve left. The driver behind me hits us on the passenger side and spins us around, then hits us a second time and is gone.
I stop the car and look back. The kids are scared but fine. Blaine and Aislin bumped heads, but other than that they look stunned, but fine. We are now facing two rows of cars. Nobody is moving anywhere. There are numerous people around on foot that witnessed the accident and are quick to help. They slowly come to our car and help get the kids out. I look at the car and have no idea how to get it turned around on this ice.
8:26 pm- I call Brent and tell him what happened. He starts trying to offer advice. I yell at him and tell him that he can't help, that I have to figure this out, that there is nothing he can do. I just wanted him to know what happened. Then I hang up on him and lose contact with the various people calling my phone, Ben's mom included, for about the next hour.
The next pieces of time are fuzzy now. All I remember though is that my adrenaline kicked in like never before. I didn't feel cold, or hungry, or tired. I was so mentally focused. I have never felt so alert. A man came up and offered to try and turn my car around. I asked if anyone saw the person who hit me, telling them that I needed to get his insurance. A teen aged guy told me the guy that hit me was gone, but told me the neighborhood he turned into. I am stunned that someone hit me with 3 children and then just drove home! The man asks me again if I want him to move my car. I decide, sure why not, we now have another insurance deductible already. I tell the people helping me and the kids to get the kids behind a guardrail. I know that on this ice nobody has control, that the man trying to help could very well hit one of the 20 people on the side of the road. I look over and notice that Aislin is shaking and crying. Blaine and Ben are huddled around her trying to keep her warm. I see a lady offer the kids gloves. She tells them to take them that they only cost a dollar.
The man gets my car turned around, but parks it up on a curve. I tell the people around me that I need the car on the road. I can't leave it parked. People start talking at once. They tell me I can't drive anymore in this mess. Several people tell me how far away they parked and tell me that I need to walk. I tell them all that I can't walk 3 plus miles in this weather with 3 kids. A family offers to walk with us as we are all headed to the same neighborhood. I calculate the risk. I decide the people walking are no safer than us in the car. People are sliding all over the place, it is freezing out and beginning to drizzle. The people walking run the risk of being struck by an out of control car. Walking is not an option.
I tell the kids to get behind the guardrail again, that I am backing the car back onto the road and that we will be driving home. The teenagers around start pulling pine straw and throwing it on the road over the ice to try and help me gain some traction. I slowly back the car onto the road. During the time that has passed while making this decision I have seen two lone cars attempt to go down the hill I am facing. They swerved a little, but both make it down okay. I think if we can just get down that hill and to the clubhouse in the neighborhood then we can walk the rest of the way.
The people help me load up the kids. I can tell they are scared to be back in the car. I tell them to buckle up and tell them that we will hit more ice, that we will swerve, that it will be scary, but to please not scream and that we WILL be okay. They all listen. We begin inching our way down the hill. We hit a few more pieces of ice, but we make it down okay. I breathe the slightest sigh of relief as we turn into our neighborhood. I feel that we can handle the rest at this point.
We make it into the neighborhood. I drive with one tire hugging the median in the center of the road of our neighborhood and the other tire on the road. Blaine screams that we are going to be hit. I look back and see a car probably 200 yards behind us swerving. I yell at Blaine and tell him do NOT yell again. I feel bad about yelling at him, but explain to him that I must stay focused and his screaming doesn't help. We make it to the clubhouse, which appears to be closed. I drive around to the parking lot of the main neighborhood park.
9:06 pm- We park the car. I tell the kids to bundle up with their (thin) jackets and to zip them up. I tell the boys to find a tree to go potty if they need to. They had been stating the need to go for over an hour. The boys find a tree. I notice it is beginning to rain. I look for an umbrella and do not find one. I tell the kids to come and let's link arms for the walk home. It is a little over a mile with various hills in between the park and home. On a perfectly good sunny day it takes the kids and I about 30 minutes to walk to route. It is dark, cold, and rainy. I estimate we have about an hours walk.
We make it through the park okay, but I know that danger lies in crossing the icy streets and driveways. The boys are in such a hurry to get home they keep trying to go past me. I tell them they MUST stay behind me at all times. That I will figure out the best way to cross each driveway and then they will follow me. Blaine forgets and gets in front of me on a driveway. His feet slip from under him. He falls hard and lands flat on his back. The wind is knocked out of him and he starts crying, saying "my back!" I decide that it is a good sign that he can cry and talk and notice he is holding his neck up. I decide that nothing must be broken. I carefully help him stand. After that all the kids stay behind me as I had asked. We slide around on the first two driveways and make it across by either sliding on our bottoms or on hands and knees. The boys and I have wet jeans now. Aislin is the only one that has not fallen, and thank goodness is still relatively dry. I decide we can not make an hours walk in wet clothes. We have to find a better way to cross these driveways.
I remember being in 2nd grade and taking karate. We did these dreaded duck walks around the room. You squat down with your rear somewhat resting on the back of your calves and walk. They killed me back then, thus my quitting of karate. I tell the kids to wait at the next driveway. I try the duck walk, thinking that this may keep us on our feet and low to the ground so that hopefully any falls will not be harmful. It works!
We start duck walking. I see a jeep coming up the road. I tell the kids to stand still and watch out in case we need to quickly dive out of the jeeps way. The jeep stops. The man inside asks if he can give us a ride. He looks trustworthy and his jeep is very clean. I have a decision to make. Either the kids and I can continue walking for nearly another hour, in the cold, rainy weather on the icy sidewalks or take a ride from a stranger.
I tell the man that I'm not sure and explain to him that the roads are very icy and that we have already been in one wreck. The kids are in the background begging to accept the ride. The man can see my hesitation. He tells me that he has been driving people home within our neighborhood for the past 2 hours. He tells me that he has taken over 40 people home. I again, calculate the risk. It is not likely that he is going to try and drive us anywhere but home, he can't get out of the neighborhood on these roads. However, it is possible that we could wreck again. For the life of me, at that moment, I can't remember if Jeeps are or are not likely to roll during wrecks. I look at the kids, they are shaking, scared, and cold. I look at the man, he looks like he is telling the truth. I tell the kids to climb up in the small back seat, then I climb in the back with them, thinking that if we do roll at least with 4 of us in the back maybe it will cushion the fall.
The man introduces himself (I no longer remember his name) and begins the rest of the way home. I tell him that we have a very steep driveway and ask him to park on the side road next to our house. I figure the pine straw in our front yard will be the best option for getting up to the house. The last obstacle to overcome is the 3 large front steps leading to our front door. They are completely iced over with sharp edges. Thankfully, I had worn jeans and sneakers to work (extremely rare for me). I was able to get one foot onto the top step while holding onto the wall. I pulled myself up. I then told each child to come to the side and I lifted each one to the top.
Around 10:00 pm- We made it inside.
I call Brent and Anna and let them know we are home. I tell them both they will not be able to make it into the neighborhood. I tell Anna about the duck walks.
10:50 pm- Anna makes it home with a bottle of red wine, gourmet cheese, and a box of crackers stuffed inside her purse. She walked for over a mile inside the neighborhood. She said the duck walks saved her on the driveways.
11:00 pm- Brent makes it home. He parked at a Publix down the road and walked about 3 miles home in his dress clothes. I forgot to tell him about the duck walks. He fell a few times, but made it home safely with ruined dress shoes and a ruined dress shirt.
Somewhere after midnight- Anna and Ben go home, Blaine gets in our bed (where Aislin had fallen asleep shortly after arriving home) and we all go to sleep, thanking God we all made it home safely. We leave the empty bottle of wine, leftover cheese and crackers on the table, and Brent's dress clothes in a pile on the floor.
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