Kansas. And Omaha... and how we almost didn't make it there.

We're in Kansas again. Adam came home a couple weeks ago, right after I got back from a business trip, and then two weeks later I had to turn around and leave again for another trip to Omaha. We decided to take advantage of the free trip back to the mainland to go visit A's family, so here we are in Kansas. We drove up to Omaha on Tuesday for my conference and got into a car accident on the way. It was raining really hard and we hydroplaned. Did a 180 spin on the freeway just about a hundred yards short of an overpass. Slid into the ditch on the side of the road and careened up the other side before coming to rest in the middle of the ditch looking back down the highway from the direction we came. I guess the actual accident wasn't that bad, considering... I mean, we could have hit another car, the overpass, or the ditch could have been more menacing with rocks or a steeper drop off. We were lucky. For me, though, the accident seemed pretty violent. When we slid off the road we hit a mile marker on the passenger (my) side of the car which caused the side airbags to deploy. For some reason there is a small airbag that deploys from the side of the passenger seat and of course it exploded onto the back of my arm while the side curtain airbags deployed onto my face. As soon as that happened, it disoriented me. I thought we were rolling, and with the pain on my side, I thought the car was crumpling in on me. All I could think of was This is It. I was imagining the worst. A told me later what was going thru HIS mind while I was experiencing all this trauma: Shit, we just wrecked my parents' car; Baby's gonna be upset; How the heck are we going to get to Omaha?......... yes, those were his thoughts as we were careening out of control down the highway! After the car came to a stop and I calmed down and stopped my hysterical crying and figured out what happened and that we were ok, A got out in the rain and assessed the damage. Two flat tires and the rear bumper banged up, but otherwise no real damage to the car. Plus the internal damage caused by the airbags deploying. We got a tow to Topeka and got the tires replaced and then continued on our way with only a 5 hour delay.

That was pretty much the scariest thing that's ever happened to me.

Omaha was fine, we had a nice time. We were staying right down in the old Market district, so we could walk around to the shops and restaurants. We were scoping it out for potential future place to live. A would like to live in the midwest since he's from here. I'm pretty much opposed on philosophical grounds, but I opened my mind since I had to go there anyway to scope it out. I think we are still set on trying to go to Colorado after we leave Hawaii. Which is still 3.5 years away anyway!

I think we are off to some local sightseeing in some salt mines so I gotta run!