Joan on the Road...of Life

Before I write about Jimbo's graduation last weekend I need to write about our harrowing, scary freeway adventure last night. We were on the way home from a trip to Newport Beach (about 90 miles) and I was driving in the carpool lane...going about 65-70....during evening rush hour traffic on the 91 east. (Got the picture ? :(

Suddenly the car slows down, all the dashboard lights come on, the gas pedal is unresponsive!!! Yikes. I immediately turned on the flashers. There's no place to pull off to the left. It's noisy and I can't tell if the car is running or am I just coasting?

Traffic is moving along on my right and there are breaks here and there so our immediate thought was try to move right and get off the freeway (in hindsight I'm not sure that was a good thing to do.). I turned on the right turn signal and with Jim helping me decide when to change lanes we managed to putt-putt across four lanes and get to a safe spot between the freeway and an exit lane (that little V-shaped spot). We got a few honks but we got a few people who slowed down to let us move.

To say I was shaking is an understatement!! I could barely talk! I said more four letter words crossing those four lanes than I have in the last year !! :)

We sat, trying to decide what to do, who to call and in just a few minutes a tow truck pulled up behind us. A hunky, young, fireman handsome guy knocked on the window and asked if everything was OK. Well I almost lost it right there! Anyway, he was from Freeway Service Patrol, a California highway service, and his job was to help and/or get us off the freeway. So he hooked up the car and towed us about a mile to a CHP designated safe spot...your tax dollars at work.

We called our kids and our towing service. Kids arrived quickly to give hugs and support. Tow service (Good Sam!!!) arrived within 15 minutes :) Wow! They towed the car to Hemet, about 40 miles, no charge. Jim rode in the tow truck to give directions. Renee, Tom and Hilly followed along to then take us home. Hilly got a view of Grandma that she may not have seen before :)

All's well that ends well:) This sure could have been a disaster but I guess the gods of the freeway were on our side and we lived to tell the story :)