Yesterday, I traveled down to Portland in my nice Toyota Camry (six years old with 200,000 miles on it!). I expected to have a leisurely drive down, spent the day perusing Powell's bookstore, and hopping from one vegeterian restaurant to the next. Oh, how plans change.
Portland's highway was ripe with construction. There were slow downs everywhere, and a lot of stop and go traffic. A guy pulled in front of me. For awhile, everything was good. Then, he slams on his brakes.
I knew there was no chance of me stopping in time. The shoulder was wide, so I tried to pull over onto it. My brakes, however, locked up, and I went into a skid that pulled me straight into the concrete barrier.
The airbag didn't deploy, but I was wearing my seatbelt and got out of the car unscratched. A nice semi driver stopped behind me and paused traffic so I could extricate my car from the barrier and pull all the way off the road. You have to love nice people!
Now I'm waiting for the verdict from the insurance company. Declare the car totaled, or spend $2,000 or more to fix it? It's an agonizing wait, made even worse by the fact that I have family coming in less than a week, and no vehicle to pick them up in. How will they get to their campsite and around town without a car? I guess a car rental is in our future.
On the plus side, a friend loaned me a nice bike, so I'm able to do my grocery shopping and school work without too much trouble. I've already logged seven miles on it in the past three days. Talk about your crazy plans to get in shape! All you need to do is have a disastrous road trip, culminating in a wreck, and suddenly there is no avoiding the dreaded bike.
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