June 4th, 2010

Small Victories

A few years ago, I was in a no damage/no injury, but still terrifying, accident on my way to LAX. It was a very windy day and I swerved to avoid a metal sign in the road, a bad tire hit the paint on the freeway and I spun out across three lanes and somehow ended up facing the correct direction on the shoulder inches from the center divider.  For anyone familiar with Southern California, this happened on the southbound 101, one exit before the Conejo Grade. Amazingly, there was no collision and I was able to keep going on to the airport and got on a plane (pretty convinced something awful was going to happen) and made it safely to Michigan to visit my sister.  I drove back from that trip, but never drove to the airport again.

I lost faith in my car and slowly started avoiding driving on the freeway. I would when I absolutely had to, but started avoiding it more and more, resulting in some missed opportunities.  I’m telling this story because a month or two ago, I got a new car and drove on a small highway to go to a different farmer’s market with my mother-in-law and it wasn’t scary. And then yesterday, I drove to LA, just south of LAX! I didn’t drive the same route on which I had my accident, I took the coast, but I drove to the general vicinity. With a baby in the car! And it went great! Well, great is relative, I got lost twice on my way home and the 405 was a parking lot, but whatever. I made it!