July 10

This is a post about cars. Today marks the 7th anniversary of my crazy crash just outside Elko, Nevada on my way home for school for the summer. But we'll get to that later.

So, in HS I shared a super boring '89 Honda Civic with my mom. I got to take it to school on the days when she didn't have errands to run...it was rare. But, most of my friends had cars so who cares. I always wanted a cool car.

Well, I got one. (Only because Sam totaled the Honda the night before I was supposed to drive it back to school)...thanks to him I got to take out my Dad's old '86 Mazda RX7. OH IT WAS FUN! It had a short clutch, which made it easy for speed shifting and you could rev it up to 7k rpms before it redlined. Since it was a fast two seater with a rotary engine and rear wheel drive it caused a few problems in the snow, where I was attending school. I kept a couple of bags of sand in the back to weigh it down...or my friend Travis who always volunteered to chill in the back.

Yes, I did have many spin outs...sometimes thanks to Phil who would spontaneously pull the parking break while I was driving. Yes, I became really good at driving.

After a while my parents thought it wasn't safe enough to be driving that car around and they bought me a '96 Subaru Legacy Outback. It was hard getting used to. Different clutch, not as fast. However, I didn't need to slow down while going over bumps and in and out of driveways. It had great clearance, and great sound with it's boxster engine. Just not as fast as a Porsche.
I did a lot of offroading in this thing. Another fun car.

Except, for what I did to it.

JULY 10, 2002.

I flipped it. 3 times. No, I didn't roll it...I FLIPPED IT! It was airborne. My rear right tire skimmed the headlight of the semi driving next to me. That's like 5 ft tall or 6. Y'know the big semis that drive your goods across the U.S. Then, the car landed on the roof and slid for 1/2 a football field. The first thought that entered my mind was as tons of gravel, glass and dirt was burying me was...Lois Lane. Y'know the part in Superman I when there's an earthquake and Lois is in that car that falls in the cracks and she's "helpless" and is buried by dirt. Well, unfortunately I didn't know Jared then to come save me.

The car ended up on its left side where I unbuckled and crawled out on the super hot ground. People were to me immediately and I cried after I looked at the wrecked car that I loved. So sad. I wiggled my toes. I wasn't paralyzed. Someone covered me with a towel to shade me from the sun because it was so HOT!

Then an ambulance came and rushed me to the hospital. I had no shoes. My flip flops are still somewhere in the dessert....along with art supplies, cds and other random stuff. I was moving a bunch of things home because I only had one more semester left at BYU. Somehow, I lost control, over corrected and flipped. I really think blew a tire.

*If you're driving on a long trip with a few cd cases, keep them zipped in case you get in a crash, you'll end up losing a bunch...like Prince's 3 cd case along with his B sides. I still haven't replaced it. So sad.

Anyhow, at the hospital I called my mom, couldn't get a hold of her. So I called my Dad at work. Well he tracked down my mom, who was at my Aunt's house because they just found out she had cancer (ARGH!) and my mom tracked down a nice couple from Elko who were members of the church who came to pick me up and take them to their house. I walked out of the hospital in bloody clothes (got a big gash in my head) and a pair a socks that the hospital staff gave me.

The tow truck guy scavenged my belongings from all over the highway and threw them in the car and towed it. After the nice couple fed me dinner they took me to the junkyard to pick up what I needed.

My sister was on the phone getting me a flight home from Elko, Nevada (super small airport). I remember he husband Lee just wanting to drive out (8hrs) to pick me up. Fortunately my cousin Keith was driving back from Utah with a big truck the next day and he stopped to pick up all of my stuff. That was nice of him.

The annoying part about flying home is that it was a quick ticket and one way and this was soon after 9/11 that I was flagged for security checks. I kept getting them. By the 4th one I was like, "look, I'm a mess, I just totaled my car in the middle of the desert and I just want to get home to rest." They let me on through.

The bike didn't land there, they just stuck it there when they towed it.

Since I survived the crash so well....except for the 6 months of jaw therapy (it was misaligned and I couldn't open up all the way) I bought a '99 Outback. Which was sold right before we went to Switzerland.

Jared was nice enough to let us buy another Subaru Outback when we moved back from Switzerland. An '06 and we got a sweet deal. I searched all over the Bay Area for one that was a manual transmission. No automatic for me. We've put less than 7,000 miles on it in 11 months. Not bad eh? And that's with one car. Jared bikes to work and I walk to friends houses and do all of my errands in one day...well that will change. I don't think Finn will allow me to go to 5 stores at once.

Some day this will be replaced by a mini van. But not after a few more kids. Oh, and Jared is getting an electric car also...someday. Just hasn't found the perfect one yet.