Time to Reconsider

I was sitting here Saturday night, minding my own business (which as anyone who knows me well is a rare occurence) when I heard a huge BANG!!. My first thought was that one of the dozens of water bombers, helicopters or fire-related light planes had crashed very close by. Then I thought maybe the propane tank on someone's RV had blown up. Then I thought I'd best get out and see what was actually going on, in case someone needed help.

No flames or smoke was apparent, so that was a good thing, but there was a flashlight or two bobbing down in the motel parking lot and lots of yelling. These motel rooms are part of the Bel Air complex and are only about 100 feet from our site.

As I arrived I saw that a small (12 ' x 12' maybe) building adjacent to the row of motel rooms had the corner knocked out, and a sagging roof. Further on, down an embankment, was a late model Ford, its rear end resting in a sling of the chain link fence which surrounds the resort.

A couple of the men were helping an elderly, somewhat confused, lady from the car and up the embankment. She was insisting that she could get in the car and drive it away, which was obviously not possible. She didn't seem to understand what had exactly happened, but didn't appear injured.

James and Cathy Hodge (a super young British couple) own and run Bel Air and by now Cathy had called an ambulance. We managed to get the lady to sit down and I tried to distract her with a little conversation. When the ambulance arrived they checked her over, and I assume she was fine. I left shortly after they arrived.

Today (Monday) the car was pulled out of its self-made nest by a tow truck with a winch. There was a big chunk of concrete and a pipe from the fence wedged underneath that took both James and Cathy's dad Dave to move, once the car and it had been separated. I'm betting that Ford won't be going anywhere under its own steam soon, if ever.

How did this dear little soul get herself in such a mess? Well, she had dropped her friend off and was turning around. I suspect she thought she put the car into drive, when she actually slipped it back into reverse. When she hit the accelerator she zoomed backwards at a good clip, hit the corner of the building and kept right on going - backwards.

Talk about a time to reverse your decision. This was one.