"I AM NOT a woman who can always resist chocolate, wears make up to the pool, and has spotless floors all the time. But I am strong. I am invincible. I AM MOM." ~B.O.B

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

What an Adventure this was...

So, we decided to go to Utah for the weekend. We left Friday at 3am & drove to SLC. Our main plan was to go snowboarding and visit with friends and family.

Saturday morning we went to Brighton (my favorite resort) & had a great time. Madi got to spend Friday night and most of Saturday with her Auntie Lolly.


I guess my blood has thinned since moving to Arizona, because I was absolutely freezing! However, boarding was just like riding a bike. I felt like I never stopped going. I loved it. We hit a few jumps (some landed, others didn't) & we went through some trees. It was great. Towards the end of the day I went through some trees or should I say I went into a tree. Yep, I crashed hard! Luckily, I was wearing a helmet & there was no serious damage.

Anyway, on Sunday afternoon we headed down to Cedar City to visit my sister. We stayed the night & took off the next morning for home. Well, it snowed over night & my brother-in-law recommended we not take the canyon- it looked as though it was still snowing. He told us to go down to a cit named Hurricane and then back up to Kanab. A new route for us, but easy enough. Well, when I looked at the atlas I saw we could either go back up to Kanab, or go south through Lake Jacob & come out the same spot. We decided to go through Lake Jacob...

We should have listened to my brother-in-law. This road was not traveled often & went straight through the tops of the mountains. Therefore, we were mostly alone in a huge blizzard! Our windshield wipers kept icing up, the road had 1-2ft of snow on it, and we could hardly see anything.


This is how it looked out the front window & my side window. It was the scariest ride I'd ever been on. However we couldn't stop, for fear of not being able the start again. It was so bad, we started talking about what we should do if we were to slide of the road, etc.

As we started to head down the other side of the mountain, it started to clear up. We also saw a few other cars. (we weren't the only stupid ones) It finally started to look a lot better, like this...


Still snowy yes, but we were able the clear the windshield & it stopped snowing. Well, carson was still driving cautiously, but my hopes of survival and making it home that day were rising.

The road was clearer than the above picture, but it started to curve to the right. As Carson tried to turn with the road, we started to slide... in front of us was a cliff with no guard rail ... at least 100 ft drop... Luckily Carson grew up in Montana & is a pretty good driver in the snow. But everything he was doing wasn't work. I began to brace myself for us sliding of the road & who knows what else would happen. Suddenly, Carson grabbed the emergancy brake and through the wheel to the right. We had to have been inches from the edge. It was as if it was in slow motion. We straightened out by the edge of the cliff & crossed over to the other side of the road. At that moment I was completely relaxed because I knew we weren't going over the edge. Then everything went super fast... We slammed into the rock wall on the right side of the road and came to a stop. At the moment of impact, my body slammed into the side of the car. I've never had a broken bone before, but I was pretty sure my shoulder was broken. I'd never felt any pain like it before. I was trying not to cry, but found I couldn't keep it back. I started sobbing, not knowing what we were going to do. Luckily, a car stopped and a couple from Austria helped us get the car away from the rock wall and put a spare on the front tire.


We slowly drove down the rest of the mountain and stopped at the first gas station. I made Carson ask where the nearest doctor or hospital was. I could not lift my right arm. I could move my fingers, and lift my hand, but that was it. I know something was wrong. Well, he bought me some Alieve and told me the nearest place was Flagstaff... 3hours away. So I just had to bare it until we got there. The medicine helped a lot, but I still couldn't lift my arm.

When we got to Flagstaff, there was another blizzard. The conditions were so bad we couldn't get on the exit for the hospital. I figured I'd just wait until we got to Phoenix. (I'd already waited 3hrs, what's a few more?) We pulled off at a gas station just south of Flagstaff and found out the freeway was closed about 2miles south & we wouldn't be making it to Phoenix after all. So, we decided to go back toward Flagstaff and stay at the nearest hotel.

Anyway, the next morning we were able to get a new tire and make it home. We got in the wreck at 1:20pm Monday... I finally made it to the ER 1:30 pm Tuesday. After many hours and x-rays, the verdict is.... I fractured my right scapula... aka my shoulder blade. The doctor said it takes a lot of pressure to break. I could have told him that. I hit the side of the car really dang hard! Anyway, the only thing to do is let it rest in a sling. (which sucks!)

I have officially broken my first bone.

Carson and I both agree that this was quite an adventure.