Saturday, January 26, 2008

Slip-Slidin' Away

On Sunday we drove down to Lake Lure and met up with Bobbie, David, Bill and Kent for lunch at Larkins on the Lake. Bill & Kent were at Bobbie's for the weekend. (Bill & Bobbie get together every year to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. They never invite me. I'm beginning to wonder if my parents had a black milkman when they were first married and lived with our grandma and then in the projects, Herman Gardens. I know once they bought the house in Detroit where I was born we had a very white milkman with red hair.) We had a nice lunch then decided to stop in at Creston on our way home to show Carol the homesite on a clear day so she could see the views. The rest of them decided to go back to Greenville. Good thing they did because when we got to the bottom of our road, Berry Lane, I could see that yesterday's snow had turned to ice and said to Robert, "Don't go up there," which, of course, made him gun it. We got part of the way up and started to slide helplessly down the hill backwards. I was trying to keep my wits about me and knew it wasn't the time to start screaming at Robert like I normally would but at the same time I also knew there was no guardrail at the bottom to stop us and was having visions of us tumbling head-over-heels 30 feet over the edge. The car came to a stop for a minute and Carol and I bailed out. I cleverly remembered to grab my purse because SOMEBODY had to be able to call 911 after Robert went over. Anyway, it was so icy we could hardly stand up and we had to climb up the hill pounding holes in the ice with our heels to get away from the sliding SUV. We stood there clinging to each other as we watched Robert continue sliding backwards. Carol was worried about Robert going on over the edge and I said, "Someboday has to get the car off the ice." I was directing him to turn towards the embankment and the car finally came to a stop and he got out. I told him to throw me my gloves so my hands wouldn't freeze in case he decided to get back in the car and try again. I was shaking so bad I could hardly zip my coat. When the car was finally safe on dry pavement it took some coaxing from Robert to get us both back into the car. Carol wanted a drink and was having a meltdown in the back seat and vowed to start a "Grateful Journal." We were wondering if Oprah wanted our story. Then we realized it was the good thing the others didn't follow us there because we would have slid backward into their car and pushed THEM over the edge. Robert was cool as a cucumber and just said it we only would have dropped 20 feet. 20 FEET! That would be like driving a car off a 2-story building!


Berry Land the next day after being salted.


The drop down the hillside. I don't think the mountain laurel would stop a tumbling SUV.

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