We’ve all had at least
one or two interesting experiences with driving – that long, sweaty
road trip where you couldn’t wait to get to your destination, or that
car accident that shook you up and made you rethink your priorities.
Recently, I interviewed 5 TPS students on such experiences that they’ve
gone through.
Michelle Wakefield
"A majority of my life is spent in a car. I am in a car either driving to the store or going to guitar lessons. But one of the most memorable times in a car was on a road trip to New York with my family. It was a ten-hour drive from Candia, New Hampshire to Bath, New York. Plus we had a dog to take care of on the way so we made frequent stops.
We headed out at around 1 o’clock in the morning and drove throughout the night. My brother and I were extremely excited. Though it was dark we could still see the outlines of the monuments and sites we passed. Even our dog, Harley, was enjoying herself. She loved sticking her head out the window for some fresh air. After an hour or so, we made our first rest stop. We stretched our legs and took care of the dog. We found a vending machine and snacked on potato chips and Coca-Cola. And soon we were back on the road.
For the next few hours, my bother and I played go-fish, war, Uno, and probably almost any card game you can think of. It was fun for about 2 hours. Then the excitement started to drain out of our already tired and sore bodies. We had been sitting there in the same seat for about 3 hours. We could tell Mom, Dad, and Harley were tired too. Mom and Dad were running off of old coffee and flat Coke. But we must push onward. We had 7 hours to go and counting. Though my behind would have begged to differ, if it could talk. I’m sure it molded a place in the seat from sitting there so long.
And in a few minutes, I was asleep with an eighty-pound dog on my lap. I
slept all through two more rest stops and bathroom breaks before I woke
up to see the sign 'Welcome To Bath New York!' on the highway. I was very happy. Everyone started cheering for joy. Because we were so happy, we started playing Audioslave in the background. It was a fun road trip, but our behinds were sore. We were done our road trip and ready to see the faces of our loved ones in Bath, New York once again."
Lizzie Spotts
"There was a man who used to go to my church a few years back, and I was good friends with his daughter.
We
were riding home from church together, all three of us squashed into
the front seat of a pick-up truck (splashed with mud in the traditional
West Virginia manner).
The man leaned over us, opened the glove box, and pulled out these fake rotten teeth.
After
inserting them into his mouth, he looked at us, said, "Watch this," and
commenced grinning at the people sitting in the cars next to us,
waiting for the light to change.
When it finally did, they all sped up rather quickly to avoid this strange hick who was grinning at them.
One time, the traffic was completely stopped up on the highway, so my mom and I decided to take a different route. However, this backfired somewhat – we sat in traffic on the two-lane highway. Our lane was completely at a standstill, but the opposite lane was going along nicely. Mom and I were sitting there, bored out of our skulls, and I began looking down the road...and couldn't believe what I saw. Coming down the road at me was another huge, dusty, dirty pick-up truck, and out of each window came two arms. On top of the truck sat a mattress, not being held on by anything except the people inside. It took me a minute to realize what I'd seen, and then I shouted to mom, 'DUDE! LOOK!!' We both laughed, and the traffic didn't seem so bad any more."
Mike Hottleman
"My family
has never been much for road trips. I mean, we take them every time
when we're going on vacation; I've only been on a plane once in my life
(which is an entirely different story). Usually, the highlight of my
ride is looking out the window at all the places I've never seen
before. It's so weird to be transported into a whole new world, of
sorts. The weather's different, the people speak differently, you see
random convienence stores that aren't where you live, gas stations
you've never heard of, and scenery that you'll never experience where
you live. But I think that there are two things that really have
impacted my entire life that happened on road trips.1) Seeing
towns that are really poor and run down, and being shocked at how they
look the same as ones that you have around where you live. Filthy,
unattractive, a place to get your hair and nails done every 5 feet, and
so on. It's really sad to see that less fortunate people have to make
do with the same scenarios as everybody else in their position. I don't
even want to imagine the worse sections.
2) On my trip to North
Carolina with my parents, we drove by someone who had been struck on
the highway. Not in their car, but while walking. Probably got hit at
around 45-50 MPH. While I don't know that person's fate, it makes me
want to be more careful around roadways, too; even back roads. And I'm
not just saying that to follow the 'look both ways' stereotype. When it
comes to someone's life, it's serious business, and it doesn't hurt to
take the extra step to protect yourself."
Tiffany Yonts
"The
other day, my dad left the house to take my brothers—JordanY and
NoahY—to swim practice at about 3:00pm. They were running a little bit
late, but not by much. About twenty minutes after they left, I heard
the phone ring. I was in my room doing homework at the time. A few
moments later, my mom came by my room; she was putting her shoes on,
and she told me that she had to go pick up the boys to take them to
swimming. I was confused as to why she needed to do that, since dad had
already been taking them, but I soon realized that his old blue
Mercedes-Benz had probably broken down again. Mom confirmed this and
asked if I wanted to go with her. I shrugged and said 'sure,' because I
really didn’t have anything better to do at the time.
We
got into her Honda CRV and began driving towards the pool. On the way,
mom told me that the wheel had fallen off of my dad’s car while he had
been driving. It was a mechanical failure that my dad had never
experienced before. I actually found it quite humorous. We drove up to
where my dad’s car was pulled over; he had pulled over into a left-turn
lane, and he had a security police car behind him, flashing its lights.
As soon as we got there, I burst out laughing. After a few breakdowns,
all the things that go wrong with the cars start to become funny. My dad’s cars malfunction more than a Microsoft computer.
Apparently,
the metal connecting the ball-joint of the wheel to the car had just
sheared off, and the wheel had fallen right off of the car. If it
hadn’t been for the over-hanging fender, the wheel would have rolled
right across the street. Thankfully, this didn’t happen, and no one was
hurt. The car was towed back here, the insurance was switched to our PT
Cruiser, and now we have three broken Mercedes-Benzes sitting in our
yard."
Amber-Marie Isenburg
"It
was January 17th 2004; my dad's birthday in fact. I woke up at around 5
am as normal to get ready for work. I left my house at 5:30 am. It was
extremely foggy, so I could barely see the road. It was approximately
20 degrees, which is very abnormal for the south. So my body was
shaking uncontrollably. I get like that when I’m cold . . . I become
very shaky and tense. It was so hard for me to see, but I worked just 5
miles away. I didn’t think anything could happen. I pulled out of my
driveway and pulled out of my street . . . I took a left turn . . .
another left turn . . . I was driving and leaning up close to the
steering wheel, hoping I wouldn’t hit anything. The fog was so thick I
couldn’t even see if my lights were on.
I
reached down to turn my heater on some more, and BAM! My car hit
something. I panicked; my CDs went flying all over the car, hitting me
in the face and landing on the ground. The force threw my body right
into the steering wheel, giving me an aching headache for the rest of
the day. My car seemed to flip over, then landed on top of something
and slid down. So many thoughts were running through my mind that my
body wouldn’t stop moving. I still didn’t know what I hit, and I
couldn't see a thing! So I kept on driving, not realizing that I had
just committed a major felony: a hit and run. As I drove to the end of
the neighborhood, my car bounced up and down with every second.
Finally, I realized that I couldn’t make it work. My car wasn’t road
worthy. I got out of my car, and looked at it. I sat there and cried.
The whole passenger side end of my car was just ruined. The headlights
were smashed in, my wheel was bent in half, the hood was crinkled, and
the bottom of my car was messed up too.
Obviously,
this was not a great way to start my day, especially my dad’s birthday.
So I was going to go back to the scene of the accident if I could find
it. I get to my door, and I locked my keys in my car. I sat out there,
for about 15 minutes, freezing my butt off... about 5 or 6 cars passed
me, then a man stopped and asked if I needed help. I just asked him if
he could take me home. He took me home, and we drove past the place I
wrecked. The place was a mess. Glass and car pieces all over the
ground, and the black car I hit was pushed up on the sidewalk, totally
smashed. It looked like someone had pushed the front of the car in; it
was all crinkled up in the front. (Did I mention that this car was
parked facing the wrong way, no reflectors on the front of her car, and
if she had parked legally, I may have been able to prevent this
>_>) I kind of sunk in my seat.
The
man dropped me off at my house and left. I sat outside for a moment,
thinking 'I hit a parked car... I hit a parked car…' I can laugh at it
now, but then, I couldn’t laugh at all. I woke up my parents, told them
I got in a wreck, and my dad took me to work. I took him down a
different road than the one I drove on and told him I fell in a ditch.
I was too embarrassed to tell them I wrecked; I was scared of what
would happen. My dad looked at the damage on my car and said, 'Are you
sure you fell into a ditch?' I just looked down and said, 'Yes.' I knew
he could tell I was lying, but I didn’t care. He dropped me off at
work, and my manager said, 'What are you doing here? You’re off today.'
Well, needless to say, I broke down. All this trouble for nothing. So I
call my mom and she came to get me. On the way back home, she asked me
to tell her the story, which I did. I told her exactly what I told my
dad: I fell into a ditch. She asked me about 3 times if I was sure that
was the story I wanted to stick with. Of course, I said yes. My mom
stopped in the front of the neighborhood where I had left my car, and
in the daylight my car looked so much worse. I can't believe I drove it
down the street a few hours earlier.
During
the 20 minutes that I was at work, my dad had gone to the house
where I hit the car and explained to them what happened. Thank God they
were caring and understanding. But it was still about 30 minutes before
I got to meet those nice people. =). I got out of my mom's car, and the
look my dad gave me was worse than if he had killed me. I knew he knew.
And yet I still lied to him. I got a long lecture on how I could be
going to jail in a few hours because I committed a felony, on how
irresponsible I was, and how they couldn’t trust me again for a long
time. They drove me up to the house; I got another good look at their
car and just cried. My mom came with me. I wanted to go alone but she
wouldn’t let me. I knocked on the door, and the happiest woman alive
answered the door and asked if I wanted donuts. I thought she was
crazy. But she was my angel for the day. The last thing I needed,
though I deserved it, was a mad woman crying and yelling and cussing at
me for hitting her car. She was extremely forgiving, and when the cop
got there, I explained it all to him (the truth) through tears.
This
car accident cost me $5,000 of damage on my car alone, and much more on
the other ladies car. Still, I pay about $200 a month in insurance to
help pay this off. It was an experience I never want to relive, and I
hope none of you have to live it either. To this day, I still cannot
drive when it is cold or foggy, and I cannot pass that one house with
out pain clenching on my heart. Unless you’ve been in a wreck, you can
never know the feeling, the pounding in your heart, the impact of your
body being thrown against your car, the thought that you could have
just killed another person, or even yourself. Its enough to make you
wish you got hurt just a little bit more, so that you would have been
knocked out and not have to live through the shock and adrenalin rush.
Physically,
I walked away from this with a headache, but spiritually I was taught
many lessons, especially about lying. This experience changed my life.
I made a horrible mistake, and I’m still paying for it, in cash too.
God was really protecting me the whole time. When my car tipped over,
it strongly tipped back straight up. I should have landed on the side,
with my face smashed into the freezing glass covered concrete. But I
didn’t. I should have gone to prison, but God had mercy on me. The Lord
works in mysterious ways. But His ways are always just and right. In my
case... painfully right."
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