LADDERS, PAINTERS AND STATE POLICE

So . . . what do these have in common? Can you say the Deutsch family, or to be more exact, the Deutsch family van. Okay, here’s the story ~ ~

We left Munfordsville, Kentucky after a pit stop. I relinquished control to Debbie for this part of the driving. We just past Dinosaur World in Cave City and looked back to see a big T-Rex. When Debbie looked back at the road there was something in our lane that was big. We smacked into it at 70+ mph. The van began to shake and to Debbie’s credit, she stayed in control, slowed the van down and pulled over to the right shoulder. Directly in front of us on the shoulder was a pick up truck with a long ladder sticking out and a guy running on the shoulder. I knew the folks in the van were the ones who lost whatever in the road. The van shook as if something happened to the front axle.

I jumped out of the van a second before we stopped, and nicely spoke to this man. Really, I did speak nicely, even though I was furious at these guys. There were 3 guys in the pick up who were painters and were on their way back home after a day at work. Somehow, one of their ladders flew out of the back of their pick up, landing in the highway. They said a truck hit the ladder and then it was our turn. We hit it and the end result was a front left tire that was literally ripped apart.

We have road side service and called for a tow truck, got Joshua and Zachary out of the van and over to the side of the road. To their credit these guys knew they were responsible and were going to pay for whatever the cost was for the damage to our van. One guy even ran out onto the highway and grabbed the crushed ladder from the road to prevent other cars from damage.
A police roadside emergency truck came by and then a state trooper came by. Then a tow truck came by, and we all went back to Cave City, they looked at our van, and determined it was only our tire that needed changing, so we had a new tire put on, they paid for it, then at the state police officers suggestion, we changed our other front tire, since it was becoming bald and there was a nail in it.

Being on the side of the road was harrowing. One truck cut off another truck to the point that he virtually stopped right next to us. Other vehicles and trucks were flying by, it was scary. The state trooper told us that a good friend of his, another state trooper, had been killed in that area last year when a truck hit him.

After that, we went to Subway, had snacks and hit the road again. It was a 2 hour experience in fear and gratitude. There are more side stories to all of this, but that is the more important part. We were blessed in the fact that nobody was hurt and the only thing we think that was hurt was one tire. We all rode in the emergency vehicle to the gas station which had 8 kittens walking around the outside of the station. The boys were great throughout everything. They listened and were well behaved, which took away from the additional stress of the moment.

There is no wireless connection in Town Creek, Alabama, so I will be trying to find somewhere in town each day. It’s about a 9 mile drive so we’ll see what they have around here.