Whack!!

Saturday, February 17th, we had the forecast for rain and possibly snow mixed in with it. I accomplished things Saturday morning that I needed to get done at home. Then I gathered my things to head in to see Papa. Opened the garage door and saw it. Lots of rain and big snow flakes falling with it. Hmmm...I headed on out.  

As I drove south on I-75 I was caught in a knot of traffic. Big tractor/trailer rigs and a wad of cars with one going only about 50mph. Everyone was slower than the 70mph speed because of the weather but this one extra slow car was really putting everyone in a bad position. I remember thinking I need to get through this so I don't get caught up in a wreck because this is the stuff that wrecks are made of in bad weather. I gradually made my way through and thanked Heavenly Father for safety once I was on the other side. 

I pulled up on the off ramp of I-75 at Exit 129. There was a car in front of me. It stopped at the end and I stopped behind it. The rain and snow were pretty heavy. I watched this car start to leave. I looked to my left again to be sure I was okay with the light and on-coming traffic. Then I pulled out. To my surprise the car in front of me was stopped and I couldn't gather it up before I hit the bumper. Whack!

I have not been in a wreck or received a ticket in forever. Can't even remember when. Now my pretty car was guilty of whacking another car. Goodness. 

There is a Shell gas station here and I thought surely the car I hit would pull in there since it was on the side of the road we were on. It did not. It kept going. I followed. We got to the light at Hwy 25 and I watched to see what they would do. They turned left and eventually pulled into the parking lot at Babe's BBQ. Turns out I hit a 19 year old in her father's car. She was in tears. I assured her she was okay and asked if she wanted to sit in my car and exchange information. She said she would go back to her car and get the insurance information. While there she called her dad. While Bailey was in her car I got out and took pictures of the damage to each car. Bailey's car first, then my car.

Bailey came back to my car with her insurance and told me her dad was coming. We swapped the insurance information by taking pictures of each other's cards. We also wrote our contact information out for each other. Then I suggested we pull our cars further over in the parking lot so as not to block people wanting to come and eat. We did that. Bailey's boyfriend arrived. Then her dad. He had called the police and they assured him they needed to do a report. So we each got in our cars and waited for the nice police woman to arrive. 

She took our proof of insurance, registration and driver's licenses. She said we could wait in our cars while she started her paperwork. Then she came to each car and left her business card with our case number.

It is not the end of the world. But it really shook me up more than I thought. I called Claude and then texted him the pictures. It just felt awful to know I marred my pretty car, I whacked a poor kid, I ruined my safe driving record. Yuck. Then I thought about having asked Heavenly Father to keep me safe on the road with all that rain and snow. I was grateful I was safe on I-75. There were two other wrecks on I-75 when I drove home after visiting Papa. I wasn't in a big wreck on the Interstate. This was a fender bender and could all be fixed. So I am grateful for that. Such was my Saturday.