I took our mini van for a little flight this morning, which ended up shutting down a few lanes of US 41 for awhile. Thankfully there were no injuries or damage.
The boys and I were cruising past the rock cut when the car in front of me hit part of a snow bank that covered about half of the right lane. The car spinned completely around and ended up broadside across the lane in front of me. I hit my brakes, but they had no response; we were sliding at full speed right at the car's driver door.
Rather than hitting the car, I quickly swerved into the snow bank on the shoulder of the road. It didn't slow us down much, so I turned into it harder. A plume of snow blocked the view from every window, but I could feel the van slowing down, so I turned back toward the road. Then all became quiet.
Once I could see out the windows again, I watched the car in front of us pull out of the lane and drive back to us. A man jumped out, ran to our van, and asked whether we were okay. I said we were, and that I was going to try pulling back out into the road. The man said we probably wouldn't be going anywhere. I tried to open my door so I could take a look, but the door wouldn't open.
The man went back to his car and returned with a friend and a couple of shovels. They shoveled out the door so I could hop out and get a look at the van
. We were several feet off the ground and tilting at a sharp angle. It's a wonder that the van didn't roll. The man and his friend started to shovel around the side of the van, but I asked them to stop in case the snow was the only thing keeping the van upright. The man, still looking like he'd just stared death in the face, asked me several more times whether we were okay, and he thanked me for not hitting him.
Within minutes a man in a pickup truck stopped to make sure we were alright. He was a member of a first response team and offered to stop at the Chocolay police station to let them know we needed help. Next, a man in a pickup truck with a snow plow came from the other direction. He asked me to stop traffic a moment, and when I did, he cleared away some of the snow from the front of the van. He continued on his way without pausing for a thank you.
A few minutes later, a state trooper arrived and questioned the man from the car that spun out and me about what happened. The man from the car in front of me said the car in front of him started to fishtail. He tapped his brakes, which sent him spinning in circles. I said I went into the snow bank to prevent us from hitting him. He again thanked me for not hitting him. The officer grilled the man a little more about what caused him to spin out, then realized that half the right lane was blocked by the snow bank. The road hadn't been properly plowed. He said he was surprised nobody had called him about it that morning and wondered why they had left it that way. The other man pointed out that a road sanding truck had been in an accident in that same spot earlier - it was still sitting in the Michigan Welcome center parking lot next to us.
The trooper called a tow truck for me and we waited. While we were waiting, a woman pulled up and told the trooper that there were three boys walking out on the ice on Lake Superior to look at the penguins. The trooper later said he thought she was looney - who ever heard of penguins in Lake Superior? She was right, though. Someone had planted large wooden penguins on the ice, and they looked real from a distance. An officer who showed up later said those penguins were causing worse driving problems than the snow because of all the distracted drivers. I said the boys were mine, and went to get them. They had crawled out the van window after the accident, and were safe on an ice pile. Still, I rounded them up and had them wait in the welcome center. Later, they told me the lady in the center was very nice; she made hot chocolate for them, talked with them, and gave them bags for all the brochures they collected. They said they were very polite to her and asked whether I could go in and give her a tip because she was so nice.
The officer lit flares and directed traffic while the wrecker operator assessed the situation. He started with one plan, but was afraid the van would roll. He had a county snow plow, which had arrived right after the officer confirmed the snow bank was blocking the road, remove more snow from in front of the van. He backed his truck to the front of the van and lowered the truck's bed sled to the front wheels. He asked the two officers to sit in the passenger side of the van to help keep it from rolling. I added my weight, too, by hanging on the outside. The wrecker did a great job easing us onto his truck. The officer told me he was good at being careful; sometimes when other wreckers came the officer said he was just glad they weren't working on
his car.
The wrecker slowly eased the van out with no problems, and I thanked him much - He rounded the price down to an even $100, but said that it was the hardest tow he'd done in five years. The boys thought the whole event was great - much more exciting than the winter games.
When we arrived at the winter games, our den was surprised to see us. A number of them passed us on their way to the games, so they all knew that we'd run into trouble. Even the pack leader said, "I thought you looked familiar!" I said, "Yes -- the sled dog races last week." He said, "No. This morning. Standing on top of a snow bank by the Welcome Center!"
We thank God for keeping us safe, for keeping the man in front of us safe, and ask that He continue to protect the troopers and wrecker crews who have to stand out in highway traffic on a regular basis, so we don't have to.
These are the penguins and boys recently seen on the southern shore of Lake Superior near our house. Yep, we live in an exotic place! (You can click on the images to get a bigger version.)
The boys and I were cruising past the rock cut when the car in front of me hit part of a snow bank that covered about half of the right lane. The car spinned completely around and ended up broadside across the lane in front of me. I hit my brakes, but they had no response; we were sliding at full speed right at the car's driver door.
. We were several feet off the ground and tilting at a sharp angle. It's a wonder that the van didn't roll. The man and his friend started to shovel around the side of the van, but I asked them to stop in case the snow was the only thing keeping the van upright. The man, still looking like he'd just stared death in the face, asked me several more times whether we were okay, and he thanked me for not hitting him.
There are some sights up here in the north that words just can't describe. So, I'll just say, "You can't get that color out of a bottle!"