Adventures With Cars And Snow

The first adventure reminds me that I am watched over always.  I am only still here by the grace of God and I am not ashamed to admit it.

As I drove up a snowy, black canyon Thursday I narrowly missed becoming a participant in a huge wreck.

The roads were dark and windy.  I only knew where I was on the road because I could see the bright tale lights ahead of me to show me the way.  The problem arose when the break lights of the car in front of me started to flash red on and off.  Now, I am very familiar with the concept that when you are driving in the snow you should never just push in your brakes and expect to stop because you will start sliding like nothing else.  You should always pump your breaks.  This is what the car in front of me did.  Little did I know that he wasn't just pumping his breaks to slow down, he was pumping his breaks to come to a complete stop.  This surprised me because as I started to slow down because I had noticed his flashing break lights I wasn't slowing down enough to come to a complete stop.  It suddenly stuck me that car in front of me was stopped.  The realization came to me that I would need to move into the other lane to avoid slamming into the back of the now stopped car in front of me.  I moved over to the next lane and I learned why the car had slowed down and stopped.  Sparks started to show up on the road and a car a little further up from the vehicle I was initially following and had now avoided suddenly slammed into yet another vehicle that had slid and smashed into the side barrier on the road.  With driving skills I do not possess and a presence of mind to use them that I am not practiced enough to have at my beck and call I turned back into the lane I had just vacated.  Twisting my steering wheel so that my tires were going one way while my car moved another way because of the snow, I was able to avoid 1) the car in front of me, 2) the cars that were now participants in an accident, and 3) the barrier on the other side of the road.

I'm not sure I will ever fully grasp how I managed to avoid all the dangers that surrounded me that night, but I fully know that I was watched over.

The second adventure took me 8 men to help me escape.

After spending an enjoyable Thursday night with my parents it was time to leave and continue on in my chosen plans for the weekend.  The only problem was that my parents (missionaries) are currently living in a cabin for the winter and the cabin in which they are staying resides down a little hill covered in snow.  Can you guess what happened?  If you are a deft thinker you probably have already come up with what occured to me.  I got stuck.  My cute little care couldn't for the life of it get up that small hill covered in snow.

I attempted the assent a couple of times on my own before admitting defeat.  I had to call for backup.  My mother went and recruited my father to direct me and help me make it up the hill.  Too bad I do not the possess the driving skills of my father.   He directed me over and over again on which direction to turn my wheel, how much speed I needed to have, and how much of a running start I would my car would need to have.  It would all have been great if I hadn't of backed up too far over in one direction and stuck myself good in the snow.  We then had to start all of the directing and tire spinning all over again with my father pushing on different sides of my car to get unstuck....needless to say, it didn't work.

In came more reinforcements.  My mother after observing our efforts realized that we would need more help and her call was answered by the rest of the male senior missionaries on the mountain.  Over the hill they came like the Elders of Israel to help.  All of them took a side and with a little effort I was unstuck.  My father then directed me out of the vehicle in which he took my spot and shamelessly showed me how it was done.  Backing up to a good distance, he pushed down on the gas petal and gunned it up the hill.  If only I had his talent.  I guess I just need a couple more years of driving experience or I just need to always have 8 male senior missionaries available to me when I get stuck....one of the two.

The third and final adventure was just dumb.

While spending the weekend with my wonderful grandparents we woke up on Saturday morning with a fresh blanket of about 6 inches of snow.  Out of the kindness of his heart a sweet neighbor came by and started to dig out my grandparents driveway with his four wheeler.  It only made sense that I should move my car so that the entire driveway could be cleared.

I got into my car and drove it around the block so that I could come back and park it back on the driveway.  As I pulled up to my grandparents house again I noticed that it wasn't quite done and that there were a couple of spots that I could help dig out before I moved my car back onto the driveway, so I jumped out of my car and started to help.  Here comes the kicker, I left my keys in my car and my car "smartly" locked itself.  Upon realizing this I knew that I was in a pickle.  The snow plows were starting to come around and my extra key was in my apartment an entire state away.  What now?

After unsuccessfully asking 2 separate neighbors for help, one of them a young man (who was no help), and trying to break into my vehicle myself (what are we teaching our youth if we cant break into our own cars with a coat hanger), and my grandfather trying to help the conclusion was drawn that a lock smith would have to be called.  He arrived and 10 seconds later my car was open.  I wish I made as much money as he does for as little work.