Special Saturday Edition – With A Bang

That’s how I like to start my vacations. No exception this time. Kari and I left Tallahassee right on time, and made excellent time to Tampa. As we were almost to Katie’s mom’s house (to catch our ride to the airport), this 4 Runner in front of us had to make a sudden stop. As a result, we had to make a sudden stop. Just as Kari was apologizing for the quick stop, the lady behind us in the Xterra made a quick stop against our rear bumper. At that point physics kicked in and propelled us forward into the trailer hitch on the 4 Runner.

So there we were, a VW sandwiched between two SUV’s. Thankfully, the police were already there due to the same type of accident only yards behind us. I got out and asked the woman in the Xterra if she was okay, and she asked me, “What happened?”.

Me: “You hit us.”

From hence forth I shall refer to said woman as IDIOT.

The the deputy instructed Kari to move her car off the road. Already being in drive, this should have been easy to do. Kari attempted to move, but it was a no go. The deputy then told us we would have to pull the Xterra out of the road. Please note we are in a VW Beetle. So, we tried again and again no go. At this point, the deputy had to instruct IDIOT back into her vehicle to put her car into neutral. So again we tried to move, and failed. Deputy to IDIOT, “You had to take off the brake!” Finally, Kari gunned it, and we were able to break free of the Xterra’s grip.

At this point, I noticed the big welt on Kari’s forehead and my throbbing left hand. Thankfully, we were wearing our seat belts. The deputy called for a firefighter/EMT to come and check me out. They checked out my hand and could only tell me I had either severely jammed or broken something in my left hand. They recommended I get it checked out at the hospital, but also said they would only be able to drop us of at the emergency room at which point we would have to wait to get in, and as a result, miss our flight.

We elected to go to DC and have it looked at the next day up there, thus getting massive sympathy points from all flight attendants and crew members (more on that in a later post). Meanwhile, the officer wrote up the accident report and issued IDIOT a citation for following too closely. IDIOT promptly piled into her Xterra and drove down the road with both airbags hanging out the windows and a busted radiator.

In DC, we went to the emergency room, got some X-rays, and it turns out that I have fractured my ring finger inside my hand. Right now, I have on a temporary cast, but I will have to get a regular cast for 6 to 8 weeks when I get home. But, everyone’s okay, and Kari’s car is a little damaged. We’re having a great time in DC, and hopefully I’ll be able to upload some pictures soon.

Reporting from the nation’s capital,

Joshua

P.S. This was typed by Kari, who rocks my socks!! (and didn’t want to type that in…)