Minneapolis
I have made many trips to Minneapolis in my life. This one, however, taints them.
We were in a car accident last night. We got lost on our way to supper, and during our backtrack, we tried to make an exit that was a little too sharp and instead we crashed into the guard rail (and scared a yield sign into the ditch).
We're all okay. (Maybe I should have said that right away?) The worst injury was a minor airbag burn on Jessie's nose. The car -- well, we don't know just yet. It's currently being looked at by a mechanic, so we'll see. All things considered, it didn't look too bad, although the windshield will need replacing.
But there's more to the story than that.
After the airbags went off, we propelled ourselves out of the car. Good thing, too, as airbag smoke filled it pretty quickly, and we didn't want to be breathing that. My sister's friend was on her phone with her mother when it happened (my sister was driving); her mom was likely a little freaked, and rightly so, as her older sister had been in a rather severe accident exactly one week before in Belgium. In any case, within thirty seconds, my sister had called 911 and I had called our mom.
A few minutes later, a Highway Helper pulled up -- in Minnesota, those are the guys with the lit up trucks that show up for traffic direction and to assess the situation in a non-emergency crash. He was really nice, very calming (quite good at his job, really), and a second one appeared not far behind. The police officer pulled up next, and he too was very nice. As it turned out, this wasn't the first time that someone had crashed here; one of the Highway Helpers had been on the job for six months and had seen five accidents in the same place.
The tow showed up (again, very nice), and all the paperwork for the cop and tow was taken care of. The cop then sped off to the next accident, up the highway we were trying to turn onto. The Highway Helpers then offered to give us a ride to the airport taxi stop so we could catch a ride back to the U. One of the girls asked if we could get a ride elsewhere so that her friends could come pick us up; he offered to take us to Buca di Beppo's, our original destination.
We were less than five minutes away.
So we went to supper anyway, thanks to the awesomeness of the Highway Helpers. It ended up being a good thing; we all needed food and something to relax, and the car was already taken care of as much as it could be at that point.
We had an amazing waiter. Actually, the whole establishment was great -- they offered to call us a taxi and everything. But our waiter was exceptional. He gave directions to one of the girl's friends and treated us to dessert. He has no idea how much he helped us out, but I'm not sure we were capable of expressing it last night.
The girl's friends showed up there (again, two very cool people, willing to come pick our sorry bodies up) and we made it back to the U without any more trouble.
Whew. That wasn't necessarily the end of the night, although it was pretty close.
So that's the story. We were very lucky on more than one occasion, and hopefully things get better today (hinging mostly on the state of the car). Mom and Dad have decided to come to our rescue (nice of them), so we'll at least be able to make it to SoDak again today. Some mixed relief there.
I sincerely hope that the rest of spring break is boring.
We were in a car accident last night. We got lost on our way to supper, and during our backtrack, we tried to make an exit that was a little too sharp and instead we crashed into the guard rail (and scared a yield sign into the ditch).
We're all okay. (Maybe I should have said that right away?) The worst injury was a minor airbag burn on Jessie's nose. The car -- well, we don't know just yet. It's currently being looked at by a mechanic, so we'll see. All things considered, it didn't look too bad, although the windshield will need replacing.
But there's more to the story than that.
After the airbags went off, we propelled ourselves out of the car. Good thing, too, as airbag smoke filled it pretty quickly, and we didn't want to be breathing that. My sister's friend was on her phone with her mother when it happened (my sister was driving); her mom was likely a little freaked, and rightly so, as her older sister had been in a rather severe accident exactly one week before in Belgium. In any case, within thirty seconds, my sister had called 911 and I had called our mom.
A few minutes later, a Highway Helper pulled up -- in Minnesota, those are the guys with the lit up trucks that show up for traffic direction and to assess the situation in a non-emergency crash. He was really nice, very calming (quite good at his job, really), and a second one appeared not far behind. The police officer pulled up next, and he too was very nice. As it turned out, this wasn't the first time that someone had crashed here; one of the Highway Helpers had been on the job for six months and had seen five accidents in the same place.
The tow showed up (again, very nice), and all the paperwork for the cop and tow was taken care of. The cop then sped off to the next accident, up the highway we were trying to turn onto. The Highway Helpers then offered to give us a ride to the airport taxi stop so we could catch a ride back to the U. One of the girls asked if we could get a ride elsewhere so that her friends could come pick us up; he offered to take us to Buca di Beppo's, our original destination.
We were less than five minutes away.
So we went to supper anyway, thanks to the awesomeness of the Highway Helpers. It ended up being a good thing; we all needed food and something to relax, and the car was already taken care of as much as it could be at that point.
We had an amazing waiter. Actually, the whole establishment was great -- they offered to call us a taxi and everything. But our waiter was exceptional. He gave directions to one of the girl's friends and treated us to dessert. He has no idea how much he helped us out, but I'm not sure we were capable of expressing it last night.
The girl's friends showed up there (again, two very cool people, willing to come pick our sorry bodies up) and we made it back to the U without any more trouble.
Whew. That wasn't necessarily the end of the night, although it was pretty close.
So that's the story. We were very lucky on more than one occasion, and hopefully things get better today (hinging mostly on the state of the car). Mom and Dad have decided to come to our rescue (nice of them), so we'll at least be able to make it to SoDak again today. Some mixed relief there.
I sincerely hope that the rest of spring break is boring.
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