We are in the awesome green truck. I am in the middle, Mason is on the passenger side all bundled up and in his car seat, Austin is driving. I knew this would be an adventure when Austin had to go back to his parents garage and grab the 2x4 block of wood that keeps his door shut. It is always a tight fit in the truck when we are all three in there because of the car seat and gear shift, this time we were really lucky and had the dog with us also. Hyde couldn't sit on my lap because of the gear shifter so he had to settle for Mason's lap. This made Mason really happy. I was hoping that Mason would sleep on the way home but the truck is too loud and he was too excited after he realized that Hyde 'wanted' to sit on his lap.
After we got all settled we were off to try to get out of the driveway. This might be where I suggested for the first time that maybe we should just walk back to the house and stay the night. Austin looks at me like I am crazy so I smile sweetly and say 'It was just a suggestion that I now realize was stupid.' Austin actually laughs. At me. I couldn't believe it.
About halfway down the drive we encounter a drift that easily covers the tires and is longer than the truck. We get about halfway through it and the back end of the truck starts to slide sideways but I don't say anything. We make it through finally and I am sure I just had a heart attack and we aren't even to the highway yet.
At this point I am thinking this could be interesting but at least it isn't too cold out for the walk back. I know I really played the 'good wife' and trusted my husband to get home in one piece.
We get to the highway and it looks clear so I am thinking that the road maintainers have been out and cleared the roads. Then we get to the top of the next hill and I know better. The road is covered in snow in areas and where it isn't you can see the snow blowing across it. About half a mile down the road we run into the first big drift. I am surprised that the truck doesn't have any problems getting through it. I say to Austin 'What is the strategy for getting through those? Speed.' He looks at me, smiles and says 'Nope. I didn't have you pressing my foot down on the accelerator.' I was speechless. I might have been wondering if I heard him wrong or something. Needless to say I didn't say anything back and made a mental note to ask him about it later. That is when we come across the biggest snow drift of the night so far.
We are coming up on this thing and Austin isn't slowing down so I look at him and he is smiling. A little excited type smile. I say quickly and a little frenzied 'Aren't you going to go around that thing.' (the last of which was said in such in a high pitch that I think only the dog heard it) as we hit this monstrous drift. To me it felt as though we had hit a brick wall. I closed my eyes vowing to myself not to open them again until we get home.
I didn't keep this resolve very long.
I had a moment to think about it and decided that I wanted to know what was coming. I open my eyes and it is like I am in some kind of nightmare. We are just getting through the drift and Austin starts laughing and says 'Don't you just love that feeling. Like a roller coaster where your stomach falls out the bottom.' and laughs again. Mason being awake is loving every minute of this. He has become a mimic lately and even if he doesn't know why you are laughing will start laughing with you. I feel as though I am surrounded by two laughing idiots that are taking me on some crazy ride down some redneck rabbit hole.
Again I am sure that he has just taken 10 years off my life. I am sweating and starting to feel queasy I ask him if we can roll down a window a little bit. I must have looked green because my husband who has an aversion to anything cold didn't hesitate to roll the window down.
The next mile or so was okay as were in the valley between hills. We come to the top of the next hill and I am sure this is where we are going to die. I don't think there is anything worse than this feeling. We are at the top of a hill where we encounter a couple of medium sized drifts but I don't notice them. I am frozen in fear of what is to come.
You see at the top of the next hill is a stop sign and what looks like a huge white wall. Austin asks me if I can see any headlights coming from either of the other directions and I can't so that is what I tell him. I still don't know if this was a bad idea or not. All of a sudden (I say all of a sudden because to me it feels like time has stood still) Austin punches the gas. I get a little frantic and grab his arm and say what the crap are you doing? Again he smiles. A little sardonic smile. I want to just slap him. For a split second I think it is my imagination and that we aren't speeding up but no luck. We hit that drift and I knew we weren't going to be stopping for that stop sign.
Austin and Mason start laughing again and are having a great old time. I feel as though I am going to throw up. I am sweating and dizzy and I think I taste bile in the back of my mouth. I don't know if it was my imagination or not but it felt like we were spinning and the walls were closing in on me.
Next thing I know Austin has pulled over and is asking me if I need to throw up. All I could do was ask him to roll down the window to give me some fresh air. He informs me that the window has been down for the last 3 miles. I tell him that I get by and just to get me home. He informs me that the worst is over. All I am thinking at this point is liar.
The next couple of miles are uneventful because it is flat ground so there aren't any big drifts. We are coming up on the second stop sign and I see that the intersection is drifted fairly bad. I also notice that my husband isn't slowing down and we have to take a right at the stop sign. At this point he notices that I am quiet and ask if I am okay. I am thinking great how sick do I look.
I
I don't know how it happened but I had a moment of clarity. A brief moment but a moment non the less. I look at him and say that is okay because if you really want to live to see another day if you at any point think we won't make it through one of these drifts you will pull over and walk home and get the chains and then come back and get our asses. Understood.' He didn't even blink but turned pale and agreed. We only encountered a couple of little drifts and one big one the rest of the way. The big one though we had to drive on the wrong side of the road where other people had driven through it. I was just glad it had some tracks through it unlike the other ones we encountered.
Finally we turned onto our gravel road and he asks if we can have some fun. I agree because the ditches on our road aren't ones that we rollover in. He was a little disappointed that we didn't see any big ones. I am just thankful that our neighbor knew we would be coming home that night, thought of us and plowed us a path from the highway to our driveway.
We pull into the driveway and Austin turns off the truck and opens his door, Hyde jumps out, Austin gets out and then I get out. Austin is still laughing so I tackle him. I was so mad. He just kept laughing. I put snow down his shirt and even managed to stuff some down his pants. He never did apologize for scaring the crap out of me. Nor did he yell at me for tackling him and putting snow down his pants and shirt. He just kept laughing. Probably figured he deserved it. He did.
I unloaded the truck of our junk and he took Mason into bed and came back out to help and make sure I was okay. We went inside and went to bed. I will never forget it. Never.
1 comment:
Okay, what you wrote gave me a good laugh and also was like oh if that was my hubby he'd be dead.
Ya'll must be getting TONS of snow, were having 50 degree weather and sun..
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