Safe Travels - Road Trip Part One
I honestly thought I wouldn't have a lot to share with everyone after the first day on our road trip to Ontario. Just the typical funny remarks from Olive and Maeve. We would hit a bump in the road and Olive would yell at Rob "Daddy stop it! Its not funny!" Maeve yelling "HHEEEELLLLPPP!!!" every time she can't reach anything or is wrestling with her carseat. Rob and I bickering back and forth about route, where were we are staying, when we are stopping. You know the usual road trip struggles. Wasn't till day two that I realized it could always be worse and that, that first day was nothing but absolute bliss.
End of day two parked in the Nipigon Tim Hortons parking lot we were weighing our options of staying in a two to three star motel or push it another four hours to the next bigger town to rest for the night. Well I knew where my vote lied with a toddler that puts everything in her mouth and the hope of a pool for Olive. So reluctantly Rob agreed and we decided to push forward. We were probably driving for about an hour or so before we notice the camper curtain waving our attention through the window. We pulled over to the side of the road make sure there was no serious damage to the window. No damage, the lock on the window must have shook loose or something, who is ever to know. We move on and all the sudden we start chugging obnoxiously bumping up and down something was definitely not right but as we picked up speed it lessened. Just as I say out loud "I think its getting better the faster we go." BAM!!! We had lost a tire, hit the pavement, and we were veering for the middle of the road! Rob yells out "We are going to be okay guys!" Is he ensuring us or himself no one could be too sure in that moment. He then eased us to the side of the road and we came inches from being pulled into the ditch. Luckily we came to a stop just in time. I hear myself finally breathe and state "We are ok..." I think we were all in shock and having a moment of silence taking it all in. Our rear driver side tire was the one that shot off. This is not something I like to brag about but I have been in my full share of car accidents and I have to say this one felt pretty minimal. We didn't hit anyone. We managed to not hit the ditch. Can you ask for much more!? Rob got out to inspect the damage and locate our tire. Judging by his face when he got back in the vehicle I knew it was not good news. Reality hit when we realized we needed to get a tow and we were smack dab in the middle of nowhere. We had a couple vehicles stop who gave us some names of some towing companies an hour back the way we had came. After about half an hour of phones calls later we finally found a towing company that could tow the truck, camper and hold all four of us in the truck. The truck was an hour out so we took the time to thank God that we were all safe and sound and call our families to let them know we were okay. The girls were amazing sitting and watching Frozen on the iPad.
The tow truck arrived and the girls and I piled into the back of the truck. Which ended up only being a big bench in the back of the truck. It was cold outside so the driver thought he would crank the heat for us. Holy crap, only took all of a minute before I was breaking a sweat trying to shrug off my coat without pushing the girls off the bench who are tired and confused (also sweating). Okay, if I didn't just almost die in a car accident, I may have just died of heat in that truck. Seriously how long does it take to load the truck! I was starting to panic and I was looking franticly for the heat control in the truck. I went to turn it down and the knob was stuck. Are you kidding me!? I really was going to die in there! I turned the fan off but why was it still blowing heat. Every time the driver came in the vehicle I give a "Phew, getting warm in here eh!?" and he just politely smiled back. Each time I progressively tried to be louder. Obviously struggling to hear me past the truck noise. Pretty sure the backs of my hands were sweating, I didn't even know they could sweat like that! Olive and I started letting out a "Nooooooo!" Every time he shut the door which she would then break out with laughter. I can be the pillar of strength after the accident, could laugh it off, encourage the kids and Rob that everything was going to work out, but if you want to see me breakdown just crank the heat and walk away, thats all you have to do. With my sweaty fingers slipping on the screen I managed to text Rob. I am going to die in this truck please come help me! HELP ME! The longest two minutes of my life later they finally got back in the truck and Rob mentions the heat and the driver managed to turn it off without me catching how he managed to do it. There was no where along the road for us to turn around so we had no choice but to keep moving forward for over 15 minutes till we reached a snowplow turn around and headed back to Nipigon.
It was almost midnight night the girls both passed out on my lap. Feeling their little chests go up and down as they breathed, listening to the small talk between Rob and driver up front and I could have easily focused on how sweaty I felt or the twinge of pain shooting up my back and legs from sitting on that bench for over an hour. Instead I just couldn't help but feel so grateful. I just looked at my two little girls sweet, innocent, peaceful faces and just thought of how short life is and how I just wanted to embrace every minute of it I was in because you just never know when your last minute is. The tow truck driver was super accommodating (J Nichols Trucking LTD.) and the motel owner (Town Country Motel) stayed up later to wait for us to arrive. The girls went right back to sleep when I laid them down on the bed together. It was late and there wasn't much more we could do at that point till the repair shop across the road opened at eight in the morning. Get a good nights rest and deal with the who, what, when, where, and whys tomorrow.