Above is what my car looked like when I walked out of work at 10:30 PM Christmas night.

As a trade off for getting a week off from work I had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas night. Both days were crazy at work with travelers. My Christmas dinner consisted of a hot dog and what I lovingly call a turdburger, It is a cheeseburger link that looks like a turd. It does taste a lot better than it looks. I would always rather have something that tastes better than it looks rather than vice versa.  Texas experienced a rare white Christmas as it began blowing sideways around 2 PM. This posed a problem as I was supposed to leave the next morning to pick up kids in Springfield, Missouri. I never made it to Springfield.

When I left Wednesday morning I quickly realized I had picked possibly the worst city to meet, as there was not a direct interstate link to get there. Traveling local highways at less than 30 miles an hour due to the sheet of ice that covered them proved to not be the issue. I was just hoping to get to I-40 in Oklahoma. I figured that it being the major East/West route in the state it would be a priority to have it plowed, and I was right. Unfortunately I came up about 50 yards short of making it there.

Traveling at about 30 miles an hour on the on ramp to 40 the car began to slide and there was zero hope of recovery. I slid sideways off the road and I was headed quickly for one of the metal stakes along the side of the road directly at my drivers door. I smacked it and spun around with my car pointed back toward the highway. I looked and saw my mirror was hit and dangling.

So there I cat on the side of the road wondering what the heck I was going to do. I called Laila and texted the kids with the bad news that I was stuck and had no idea for how long. I was still in state of shock and trying to formulate a game plan when out of the corner of my eye I saw two large men walking toward my car. They wanted to know if I would like a push. Well hell yes, is the Pope Catholic? After about two minutes a large truck pulled up and asked if I would like pulled out. Well hell yes. does a bear shit in the woods. Before they could get hooked up a snow plow pulled up and two more large men hopped out and asked if they could help. Well Hell yes, is a bear Catholic?

I probably was not stuck more than ten minutes. Unfortunately when I started driving my mirror fell out and started flapping against the window. I was afraid that it was going to break the window as it continued to bash against it. So I rolled down the window and held it. But more good news, the mirror is heated so it wasn’t so bad. I stopped at the next exit looking for duct tape but they didn’t have any. So I went with what they had and it worked out even better.

The kids drove a little further south and I picked them up barely in Missouri. As we drove and I saw car after car after car in the ditches with serious damage that rendered them undriveable, I realized how lucky I was. I didn’t even have a scratch the mirror took the brunt of the damage and there was only a small dent under the door on the frame.

We only drove to Conway, Arkansas and spent the night.  This was another good choice as the area was also heavily hit and many locals were without power. The roads had begun to refreeze and they weren’t much better this AM. Once we got through Little Rock though the roads cleared and we had no further issues. We arrived home around 8 PM this evening.

After all that I feel like one of the luckiest people around. I may have set the record for the least time spent in a ditch. I got home and was able to see my bride for the first time since before Thanksgiving and I get to spend some time with the kids.

I have also accomplished turning a Cadillac in to a jalopy. Maybe I should have used the blue bungy cords instead.