Less Lisa

I still haven’t gotten the pictures I was waiting for, so until I do, I wanted to post about my weekend…then in a separate post I will add pictures

Get your reading glasses and a comfy chair…it’s gonna be a long one…

Last Friday, we got off work early and were on the road by 4:30 p.m. According to mapquest we had about 8 hours of driving ahead of us…we planned on being in Jersey by midnight or so. I planned ahead for my food and all and got some 1 pt. buns, some low-pt. sandwich meat and FF cheese slices, lettuce, that kinda stuff, baked lays, Special K bars, the whole she-bang…that way we didn’t have to make any extra stops for food…only gas and potty stops

We did really good till just before we got into Jersey…we realized that about an hour and a half before where we were, we missed our turn…mistake #1…we pulled into a rest area and the car started making a vibrating noise…so we got out, looked at the tires and all, nothing wrong, so we grabbed our road map and mapped our own way to Ocean City, NJ…got back on the road…mistake #2…and the vibrating noise continued and got worse the further we went…we were all worried, so I called Clint. My mom said my dad had just rotated the tires before we left, and I told Clint that, he said we needed to check the lug nuts and said the tires were probably out of balance and that we should be fine. So we went on

Then after getting into Jersey and getting *this* close to the shore, we got onto the Garden State Parkway which will take us directly south to Ocean city. The GSP is a huge-mongous highway…6 lanes heading south, 6 lanes heading north and the traffic is VERY unforgiving…they are 80 miles an hour cars…insane…then it happened…we were on a bridge, just got to the very bottom of the bridge, and I kid you not, the lug nuts were gone and our front driver WHEEL fell off…I mean, then entire thing came off the car, rolled across all 6 of our lanes and over the concrete median and over the OTHER side of the freeway!!!! I FREAKED…

My mom was driving and she did a hell of a job controlling the car and pulling over as far to the right as she possibly could…one problem…the bridge we were on is still under construction so there are solid concrete medians on the right side of the road and absolutely NO shoulder to pull off onto…so we were sitting in the middle of all this insane traffice in a LANE. These people were flying up behind us (it’s dark at this time and we had our flashers on) and coming closer than a foot away and swerving over as fast as they could…I was scared to death…I lost it and my aunt who was in the front, finally let me out of the back seat, and I don’t remember much after that…I know I jumped over the median to be safe in case someone did hit our car, but I guess I was screaming at my mom, cousin and aunt that were still in the car to get them all out as well…my aunt and cousin did, and we were all safe but my mom sat in the front seat and kind of froze. I was screaming at her and that and the stress of the situation caused her to kind of shut down…she finally got out of her side of the car (the traffic side) and came over to the median where we were standing and started to climb over when a car came up behind our car and I still have no clue how it did NOT hit the car…all I remember was the adrenaline rush of thinking….car, mom, SHIT!!!…I grabbed her and literally yanked her over the median and she went right down on the ground…she has a nice bruise on her arm that is the perfect shape of my thumb in the middle and extends out about 1-1/2 inches up and down…and her knee is all bruised up from the fall…

We were all safe, that’s what mattered…after everyone was safe, the reality of it all hit me and it was like ‘was that real???’ then it was like ‘that WAS real’….PUKE…yeah…I heaved in the gravel…couple times…I couldn’t hardly stand up…I was weak everywhere and my legs didn’t wanna hold me anymore…that was awful…

My cousin had called 911, and get this…2…TWO…towtrucks showed up and not one damn police officer…the police NEVER showed up the entire time we were there…the tow truck pulls up and says he will hook onto the car, drive it about 1/2 mile down the road where there is a shoulder, so we all had to walk to the tow truck, 1/2 mile away. My aunt and my cousin have physical disabilities, so that was hell We ended up being driven to a huge 24 hour service area where I asked one of the ladies working there (obviously not english speaking) for a phone book and received a home-for-sale listing book for some odd reason, and she politely pointed out to me the thousands more of them available for my taking if I so pleased…I said thank you and went and sat down…

Finally got a taxi to take us to the closest Holiday Inn Express and got settled in our room at about 3:00 a.m. Here’s a good tip from an Ohio-an…if you are EVER in Jersey, and you are heading to Strathmere or area surrounding…write this down…never EVER make reservations at a place called Strathmere Motel. I won’t even begin to tell you the hell this man put us through (well, when he wasn’t hanging up on us, that is) from two hours and many miles away, but do not EVER do business with this man…it did get us a few overly-tired giggles while pranking him at 4 a.m however…

Anyhow, we got a total of I think 2 hours sleep that night only to wake up to my mom at 6:00 a.m. doing jumping jacks (already having taken her shower) and singing to wake us all up…she’s a nut…we got to spend the day in the hotel having a really good time actually while we waited for our car to be repaired…we did each others’ hair, nails, had some great talks, you name it…literally, except for the whole accident, we giggled and laughed the entire trip…once our car was done and we were on the road to our original destination of Ocean City, everything was pretty smooth

That was my first time to see the ocean, and I told everyone I wanted to fly my husband and girls out and NEVER leave…it was amazing…I was so emotional all weekend…from the accident to seeing my soon to be sister in law Bridget (who looks INCREDIBLE and is down 20 lbs. now, not 18 I will post pictures of her as well), and just the surroundings of it all…it was a very fun emotional weekend Whew…book now ending…pictures to follow soon