651 Miles later...

This weekend had nothing spectacular planned at first but it quickly turned into a whirlwind of a couple days.

Thursday morning started at 5AM with me snoozing my alarm 3 times. (I'm sure Al just hated me snoozing so many times). I seriously contemplated calling into work. I had the beginnings of a migraine and just was tired. But I dragged my butt out of bed and headed to work.

Oddly, work was moving along really well and I had a couple meetings get canceled (which always makes me happy). This all changed when I got a phone call from my Dad. He said my Mom was having problems with her eye and her eye doctor thought her retina was tearing. The eye doctor wanted to her to see a specialist in SLC that same day. He told her the specialist may have to laser her eye and she would not be able to drive. Dad was in Hailey and couldn't get home in time to get her to SLC. I was more than happy to help out but didn't want to juggle 2 cars in SLC with someone who may end up not being able to drive. I left work at approximately 11AM to meet my Mom in Treamonton. A nice neighbor of my Mom's offered to drive her to Treamonton. I picked Mom up and turned around and drove to Murray to see the eye specialist. He examined Mom's eye and thank heavens her retina was not tearing...yet. So now he just wants to "watch" and "wait". No interventions were made...so Mom could drive but she has no car. Oooppss! So I decided to drive her home (to Burley, ID) vs having her wait for my Dad to come get her.

On our drive home, we get a call from my brother telling me the roads across Sweetzer Summit were a solid sheet of ice. We were almost to Sweetzer Summit when he called and the sun was shining and the roads were dry. I seriously thought he was full of it. Then WHABAM! Out of no where it starts to snow and as we rounded the bend, the roads were solid ice! A truck with a car attached were stuck in the median and a white car had rolled off the road. I tried to stop but couldn't. I found the next place to turn around to head back to the white car (to see if I could help). Before I could make it back to the white car, we saw an SUV that had just rolled. A highway patrol man had stopped right before us. So I stopped to see if the people in the SUV were okay. I told the police officer about the car that I originally turned around for and asked if he had been there yet. He said no and asked me to examine the family and stay there until an ambulance could come. For those of you not familiar with where Sweetzer Summit is, well... it is in the middle of NO WHERE!! Seriously, there nothing for miles except for farms and deer in the road. It takes forever for "help" to arrive.

The rolled SUV had a family of 5 and none of them could speak English. I only say about 15 words in Spanish and none of them were that helpful or appropriate. I was able to get out of them that they all had on seat belts and the infant (8months) had been in her car seat appropriately strapped in. They only had minor bumps bruises and superficial wounds. This entire conversation happened with a lot of hand gestures and role playing. I looked like a moron trying to communicate with them. The Dad was in shock wandering around trying pick up their personal belongings out of the dirt. I tried to get him into my car where there was heat and blankets. (Did I mention it is snowing and blowing and BUTT cold??) I called my Dad who speaks fluent Spanish and told him what I needed to tell the family and then I would hand the phone over to one of the family members to translate what the crazy pantomime lady was trying to say. I seriously need to learn another language...

Dad was able to tell me that they were looking for work and were driving to the coast to find work. All of their belongings were in the car (and scattered in the dirt) and now the car was wrecked. I felt completely useless b/c no one was really injured and I can't speak the language. I waited with the family until the ambulance could come to evaluate the scene. Come to find out the accident that I had originally turned around for (white car) was quite serious and the people were rushed off the scene...the police officer never returned to our scene. I'm not really sure why I felt so impressed to turn around when I wasn't able to help much. All I did was evaluate for injuries, send the police officer to the other accident, and sit with the mom and comfort her that her baby was okay.

Mom and I got home safe and sound around 8PM and I killed over in bed. I was so tired. The next morning I woke up and went to Pocatello to visit my sister and her baby. I stayed there Friday night and drove home to Utah on Saturday.

Thus 651 miles later...

Man it was good to be home.