Monida Pass

A week and a half ago I woke up and talked Kasey into driving up to Northern Idaho to visit my grandparents. We left a little later than we had wanted and we hadn't gotten as far as we wanted when the sun went down. The roads had been real good and we were a little ways past Dubois Idaho when we hit some black ice near the Continental Divide at Monida Pass. I tried to keep the car on the road but was unable to do so and we ended up going into the median that divides the freeway. We went in sideways, Kasey had time to yell "Oh Crap!" and soon left the comfort and safety of our four tires. We ended up on our side, in complete darkness with a very cold wind coming in my now windowless door. Adyson was quite confused to say the least, having never been on a roller coaster she had never experienced being strapped in while being jostled and turned about. Although she did start calling out to us right away, when I asked her if she was okay she responded quickly that she was okay. A gentlemen came upon us after a few moments and helped me get Ady and Kasey out of the vehicle. We had a couple of boxes of books that got broken open and then the books ended up in the snow(we had snow in the vehicle from the broken windows and the roll), several diapers ruined and my cup of change for parking meters and whatnot is somewhere in the median, but no bruises, scrapes, broken bones, cuts, whiplash, premature labor, or anything wrong with any of us. When I had finally found Ady's shoes and socks(she refuses to leave them on her feet when she is in the car) and climbed out of the vehicle myself, I was amazed at what I saw. We had clothing and junk outside the car, glass was everywhere looking at the slide marks in the snow I saw a 6 foot wide section where there were no tracks, indicating that we had been air borne at that point. I went over to the car of the gentleman who had come upon us and called 911 and checked on Ady and Kasey who were sitting inside trying to stay warm. I asked them if again if they were okay and once again both responded affirmatively. As soon as I asked Ady if she was okay she immediately asked me if I was okay. I smiled and told her that I was also okay. Then she said very matter of factly-"Dad we okay." Her simple statement struck me quite poignantly, I was worried about all sorts of things and feeling quite stupid for wrecking my vehicle,but her words caused me to really realize how blessed we were. We were all okay. After the officer had filled out his paperwork, the wrecker had come to tow our vehicle back to a wrecker's yard, we were sitting there in a small motel room in the middle of no-where and once again found ourselves looking for any sign of the wreck and once again failed at even finding a bruise from the seat belts. Even though we had only purchased our car less than a month ago and really liked it, and were totally unsure of what to do next we were profoundly grateful for our physical safety. We know that we were watched over that evening, and no matter what else, Ady was right, "we okay". The next day after I hitchhiked back to Idaho Falls and had obtained a rental car we continued on our journey to visit my grandparents. We had a wonderful time and we have some pictures to share.

Here is Ady when she saw a playground across this field. She didn't even hesitate just took off running.

We walked down to the river by my grandparents house. Ady really liked the river, she thought it was the same as the ocean and immediately stuck her hand in the water. No worries she soon figured out the water was a bit chilly.

Here's a picture of beautiful Coeur d'Alene Lake. We had a nice time visiting with grandma and grandpa and enjoyed the beauty of the scenery up North.