i'M worthWhile

justWent to my first 187thAHC.Assn reUnion. 

I hit a dead Javalina about eight miles East of Tucumcari, doing seventyfive+ on the cruise control, and went airborne. Mama's Pontiac bottomed out at a fortyfive degree angle to the inside yellow line and bounced nose down into the bank of the oncoming lane, bottoming out again.

After the ass-end came around left and right three or four times I was just getting it straightened out enough to get on the brakes (the cruise never disengaged) when a guard rail blocked me from getting back up on the right. Rosa yelled "Oh God!" and about that time I saw guard rail coming up on the left.

I knew there was no way I wanted to split'em in that part of the country, so I steered up onto the inside sholder of the on-coming lane with traffic coming two abreast. Soon as I got the tires onto the pavement I got onto the brakes with both feet.

The oncoming traffic was on their brakes too and swerving around so I eased it into the guard rail and threw rooster tails of sparks a quarter of the way across the West bound bridge. Holding it against the rail so I wouldn't swerve out again.

When the G6 finally came to a stop I sat there with both feet pressing down as hard as I could and both hands in a death grip on the wheel until someone ran up to the car asking if we were alright. I looked over at Rosa and Roslyn and realized we actually were.

Right then, I knew with certainty that I AM WORTHWHILE. The Lord took time out to help me take care of my family in most extreme circumstances. The bridges we were heading between were over a gorge that was about thirty feet across and twenty plus feed deep, with verticle sandstone walls. Had I not taken the on-coming sholder we would have done the 'Vanishing Point' ending.

I wasn't about to try to drive the Pontiac off until I could check it out in daylight, and the rail ripped off our bumper with our tags on it, so the NM Trooper called for a wrecker to take us the eight miles back to Tucumcari. They charged us almost three hundred dollars for the ride.

Next morning I checked for leaking fluids, steering, alignment, and vibrations. They were good to go so I went to K-Mart for some bungees and 'hundred mile and hour tape to put the rear bumper back on with. (I am a crew-chief after all)

I pointing her East, I didn't slow down again until Oklahoma! We stopped at the Welcome Center and ran into Neil McCarter and his wife. I was still juiced on adrenalin, but they seemed to understand.