Thanking God

Have you ever missed out on something really horrible? I mean, have you ever looked back at something and realized it "could have been me" if you hadn't listened to a still, quiet, small, voice? And then, you shudder...







On our way back from Phoenix we always look forward to driving through Texas Canyon. It is before Wilcox, Arizona. It is this gorgeous, GORGEOUS, valley that you drive through. There are beautiful, tree covered, yet rocky, mountains in the distance. And the highway slowly creeps up through the canyon. And then there is the way that the sky looks happy, above you, it is simply beautiful. Really.
Then, once you top the other side of the mountains... There are the boulders. Boulders, honey. Gorgeous! In the five times we have driven home from Phoenix we have stopped twice. I wanted to stop this time as well. Ira is not one to stop. He is the one that is "making time" on the highway. Trying to get home. But that day, Saturday, Ira said, "yeah, let's stop."
The clouds were particularly beautiful over the canyon that day. The sky was blue where there weren't fluffy white clouds. It was the clearest, most beautiful time we had ever stopped. Ira and I love looking at the boulders as well. Ira did not rush us back to the car, he strolled. The kids, and now the dogs, ran around and climbed the rocks. I snapped pictures like crazy. Trying to get as many as I could before the sun went down behind the red rock side.

The new puppy, story coming later, runs and runs. So cute. Bo, the big dog, and Ira stroll around enjoying the views together. There are other people stopped as well. Some taking pictures, others sitting at the picnic tables enjoying the view. And what a view!

Then, we get in the car and get on our way. When we notice, cars stopped along one side, a car sideways in the other lane. It obviously had just happened, minutes. Ira pulled over, I grabbed the first aid kit and the roll of paper towels. I jumped out of the truck and was able to cross the highway immediately. Believe it or not, there was not a bunch of traffic yet. There was another truck that stopped and a woman was running behind me to the older lady sitting on the other side of the car, bleeding.

From what we could tell, she fell asleep at the wheel or lost focus or something. She hit the rock that runs alongside on the right, over-compensated the wheel to the left, flipped the car over and skidded up the highway. The left side of the Durango she was driving was missing a wheel, the whole thing, not just a tire. You could see the horribly scraped damaged along the left side of the car. The front windshield, in the right corner had brush and green foliage hanging inside. The windshield did not break loose but was of course shattered and the force from the flip and scrape forced foliage through the small opening. How that amount of foliage that was inside yet there was not a hole was proof of that. I had never seen such a thing. Crazy. The truck had flipped right side up and the drivers' side door was off and on the ground. The driver, an older lady was able to get out of the car and was sitting on a rock and was bleeding only from her brow. Her airbag had deployed and she got cut from her sunglasses. No broken bones that we could tell. She was talking, thanking us for stopping, saying she was alright. No, she didn't need to call anyone because her daughter and husband were at work.

We called 911 of course and waited until Highway Patrol came. The other woman that ran across the street behind me was a Paramedic. Ira and her husband were walking around picking up pieces of the car that were strewn about on the left side of the road. About the time that everything was considered "okay" that's when we noticed cars coming. It was as if there was no one on the highway until after this happened. Like everyone was enjoying the boulders with us and left after we left only to find this horrible accident just like we did.

I was so pleased and proud of the amount of people that rolled down their windows and asked us if we needed help with her and whether or not we had called 911. One lady in a black BMW had her phone in her hand hanging out of the window yelling, do you need a phone? Do you need a phone? People were concerned, and relieved.

The woman from the accident was sitting on a boulder and looked embarrassed. She kept saying she was alright. But the paramedic looked at me and she and I said simultaneously, well, I'm not leaving until Highway Patrol gets here.

Oh, that's another thing... Here we are, out in the middle of nowhere. And Highway Patrol gets there so fast, as well as an ambulance and a firetruck. Ira and I talked about it in the car when we left. We were saying how it seemed so fast that they got there. Was it really that fast or was it just surreal that you didn't notice the time?

Then we both got quiet and silently thought to ourselves. We later discussed if we hadn't stopped at the boulders in Texas Canyon, we would have most likely been involved in that accident. Seriously. The time from the accident to the time we arrived. There was no denying it. I got emotional thinking about it. Even Ira was a little emotional. He kept saying, "something just told me to stop and look at the boulders"...

Thank You God

I took pictures of the car but only from the right side. It is bad, but the left side was worse.