The Lord works in mysterious ways and sometimes uses crazy situations to remind us that He is with us and watching over our every move. Yesterday there was a freak blizzard in the mountains during which we experienced not one, but two car accidents. Mike, Pepper, and I are all just fine- praise God. So here's a little rundown of the day's events.
Our friend B needed to run an errand to Dillon, so I offered to drive him. I chose to take the Dillon Dam Road because at the time, the weather wasn't too bad. However, as I was driving white out conditions with blowing snow and almost no visibility came up. The Dam Road is extremely exposed with the Dillon Dam on one side, and a huge drop off on the other.
This is the Dam Road on a clear day.
I was driving very cautiously at about 5-10 mph, as were most of the other drivers. The visibility was so low, that I had to use the guard rail as a guide across the road. Then, about 3/4 of the way across the road, a large Toyota Sequoia came barreling down the road (I estimate he was going 25-30 mph in A FREAKIN BLIZZARD) and side swiped me. Praise God that no one in either vehicle (including little Pepper Dog) was injured. Had he been about 1 foot over, he would have hit me head on and we would be in a much worse situation. I was literally praying aloud in the car the entire way across the Dam and know the Lord heard my prayers. We had to continue to the other side of the Dam because stopping was simply not a safe option. Luckily, there are security guards on either end of the dam so they were able to call each other and the police and get the situation taken care of. Two minutes after I pulled off the road, they closed it due to low visibility- go figure!
While I was waiting for the state police, I called Mike and he offered to come help me. Unfortunately, as he was driving on I-70, a moving truck cut him off causing him to lose control, spin out, and drift off into a snow bank where he hit a small tree. Even though this tree took a little chunk out of the driver's side running board, it caused him to stop before running into some much larger trees a few feet away.
This is the Silver Fox this morning before getting towed out. Mike was traveling in the far left lane in the opposite direction than the Jeep is currently facing.
The police came out and tagged the vehicle during the night, although when we called them, they told us that since there were no injuries they had too many other accidents going on the come deal with the situation.
He, too, was completely unharmed, but had to dig himself out and hitch a ride back to town to get a wrecker for the Jeep. Due to the significant number of accidents on the highway (which later became utterly shut down for a stretch of about 100 miles all night) the tow truck service was not able to retrieve his vehicle until this morning. Praise God that he is safe and that a really nice lady picked him up in the middle of a blizzard, drove him to the wrecker in Frisco, and then to our house in Breck! What a blessing!!
Both vehicles sustained significant damage - the Jeep has a bent front tie rod and the 4 Runner is missing the driver's side rear view mirror, part of the back fender (some of which the city police officer brought us from the road, and some of which is still lodged in the side of the Sequoia that hit me), and the passenger door won't open. It is truly a miracle that neither of us got injured. Praise God! Also praise God that we have great insurance coverage from USAA. They are already processing both of our claims and have been nothing but nice.
Poor Ruby!
I never realized how much I use my driver's side rearview mirror until it went missing.
By the time I was finished talking to the officer that arrived on scene, I-70 (read: the only way home) was closed. So Pepper, my friend Brandon (whom I'd been taking to Dillon on a errand) and I called our friend Tyler who lives about 5 (non-blizzard) minutes from where the accident occurred to hang out until the storm passed. Needless to say, by the time it passed, it was quite late and we didn't feel like pressing our luck, so we wound up sleeping at Ty's for the night. Another huge blessing as other cars and truckers were being routed off the highway and forced to get a hotel or sleep in their vehicles. Thanks, Tyler!!
We are so grateful to God for the hedge of protection around both of us, our friend B, little Pepper, and the other drivers yesterday. Although we were both quite shaken, and our cars are damaged, we don't even have a nick on us. We are truly hemmed in behind and before.
Side note: Pepper had fun playing with Tyler's cats all night!! Haha. It was a good laugh at the end of a rough day.
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