I went in late to work because the roads were terrible and I had another project going on at home.
I took Legacy Parkway in Davis County and was driving safe for the conditions. But due to snowplows up ahead merging into I-215 south, cars were backing up. I couldn't slow down even though I had plenty of room. It was one of those horrible situations where you just have to watch yourself slide hopelessly towards disaster in front of you. I tried to swerve to the other lane but turning didn't change my direction even 1 degree. The last ditch effort was to go full turn the other way and end up down the median embankment. That sounded preferable than rear ending someone and dealing with the airbag in my face.
Thankfully there was some tire traction in that direction so I missed the guy in front of me by inches and ended up down the embankment. There was no way I was getting out of that. I called a tow, which was 2-3 hours away. Due to my position I wondered how dangerous it would be to stay there and possibly get rear ended myself. Apparently it's very common for slide-off's to themselves get hit.
Anyway, about 10 minutes in I get bored and a guy stopped to help so I got out to thank him. With my car nose pointed somewhat down the slope and with 10+ inches of snow having fallen in that area there was no chance of escape, but I went to the trunk hoping for at least a coat as I hadn't brought one. While trudging to the trunk in short sleeves I saw a black piece of what looked like roadside plastic garbage under the car and so I yanked it out to throw it. And guess what it was?? haha. A shovel.
Of all the freeway between my house and SLC I happened to have slid off the road down an embankment, precisely over the top of a dirt shovel. A shovel perfect to dig myself out. If my car hadn't pushed the snow off of it by driving over it, I may have never seen it. It strikes me as damn near impossible such an alignment occurred between my car and a random shovel on the side of a random median drainage ditch during a huge snowstorm. The guy who stopped to help looked at me with my newfound shovel and we just laughed.
Took a few minutes but me and my new friend James got the car out and I canceled the tow. Of the 200 + accidents in SLC this morning and who knows how many tow's, I feel lucky to have probably been their only cancellation all day. I love it when the tools we need to get unstuck are right there for us. Undeserved. But accepted with gratitude.
I couldn't help but think of those for whom there was no magic shovel. My conclusion was that I needed to be that for someone else. Helping each other promotes good will quickly.
1 comment:
Wow. Glad you are ok, and glad you found that shovel.
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