After thinking about it all week, I decided to take a small trek up to my father's place in Parks, Arizona (about 20 west of Flagstaff) where he was hosting a BBQ for his club brothers. I made my the trip up I-17 after work Friday evening and casually made my way up the mountains. Along the way I felt a need to stop by Cliff Castle Casino to test my luck, but had none as I dropped about $60 before I tucked tail and ran on my way. I got to my dad's place at around 9pm or so and relaxed by a fire outside for a few hours with my dad and his close friend and club brother Donnie and bullshitted under the stars until it was time to call it a night.
The next day we woke up and got started on preparations for the BBQ at around 5am. We expected some rain that day, so we put up numerous tarps around the property to allow everyone to stay dry.
People began to ride in at around noon or so as we struggled to set the fire on the grill (altitude?). We got the grill running just in time and got to cooking some steak, chicken, brats, with corn on the cob and baked beans.
After eating the meal with dad and some of his close club brother's, I figured I needed to start my way back to Phoenix to catch up with a few friends to watch the previous mention UFC fights. Along the way I hit some weather...
As I pasted Flagstaff and climbed the mountain, I hit some decent (but manageable) rain. I was running probably around 65-70mph with no problems what so ever. After I hit the mountain peak and made my descent, the storm flanked me with hail as I went down a 2 mile straight away.
Realizing the danger, I attempted to reduce my speed. Unfortunately I was too late as I completely lost control of my car and spun what seemed to be 480 degrees down the road @ at least 65 mph. I clinched up and braced for whatever hand I was going to be dealt as it all happened so fast and my attempt to keep control had failed. In combination with the spinning, the rain/hail made little to be seen outside the windshield. I felt the car go off the road and abruptly stop in what still goes by in my head in flashes. I was fine.
I got out of the car and realized I was about 10 yards off the road and about 20-25 yards away facing what would have been my demise in the form of a cliff as there were no guard rails.
With the weather bearing down on me and thunder and lightning erupting like a Father yelling at his son, I lost myself in the realization that I was not in control of my life for those few seconds and I was at the mercy of God and His elements. With Him scolding me for being so reckless in more ways than that specific moment, I felt humbled to say the least.
All that happened in what I would range from 5-30 seconds. After gathering my senses I realized another car had met the same fate as I except had plowed into the rock wall on the other side of the road. Expecting the worst, I ran across the road as others were already there surveying the incident. The driver riding solo...untouched.
Apparently, she had spun out first. As other came to her aid, I came spinning down the road in the opposite direction.
A lot of things could have happened with this incident. I could have hit the rocks as the other driver did. I could have hit her along with the others trying to help! I could have failed to follow my instincts and slam my brakes in mid-spin and hit other vehicles or ultimately fell off that cliff that still makes me a bit nauseous.
When it was all said and done, the other driver was uninjured and was going tobe fine other than the damage to her car, and I walked away with the burden of replacing one tire...pretty lucky.
Before I left in my car after getting out of the mud and slapping a doughnut on I went to see the other driver in the DPS car. I told her take care and that we were lucky not to hurt. She told me we weren't lucky, we were blessed. I took a lot of comfort in those words, squeezed her hand, smiled and went on my way.
Looking back I wish I would have been able to have caught the other driver's name just to look her up and see how it all faired for her. She was a nice girl about the same age as me with bright eyes and a wonderful smile. Despite what happened she seemed level headed enough and I'm sure was just happy to be alive. Even though I'll probably never see her again or hear of what happened to her, I have no problem with having faith that she'll make it through this minor stumble in her life. As she said before, "we were blessed".
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