I have been told by my close family and friends that my blogs are far too sad, and nobody would believe all of these things have happened to us in our real lives....But I strive to tell people the truth, chronicle our adventures and help anyone I can along the way. This week;s blog will be a little different as we focus on a real life event that happened on Halloween that I think is essential for people to hear about.
Halloween is a holiday that we only intermittently celebrate, but several weeks ago we were invited to a cousin's Halloween party and we figured why shouldn't we attend. We spend a significant chunk of time scheming and figuring out what we should dress as! There was a best Halloween costume trophy at stake! After much debate we finally decided on a couples costume that I felt for sure would take us to the top! I would dress as a deer and Rob would dress as a hunter! How could this not win?! We planned to be away for the evening as the party was about 2 hours from our home, and as we loaded the truck up to head there, we were jovial! We were heading for a night of fun, socializing and just doing something for us for a change. We decided to take the truck instead of the SUV, because Sunday we were heading to my Uncles who doesn't live too far from them to pick up a plow he no longer needed. We arrived without event, parking on the street to keep the driveway clear for trick or treater's. We quickly set our things down and got to helping pass out candy and enjoy time with each other. As trick or treat ended we headed inside to feast and enjoy a fire! The rest of the evening was picture perfect with Halloween themed food, costume pictures and company of wonderful people. As the evening wore on all of the other guests left and we began helping Kelly clean up before we headed to the hotel for the evening. As I was washing out a container, I heard a loud BOOM!
We all stopped what we were doing and looked at each other, what was that?! Did something fall? Was that an explosion? Rob immediately went outside to see what had happened and as he jogged down the street the night will forever be changed. When I saw Rob go outside, I went out after him and when I saw the carnage in front of me, I screamed to Kelly to call 911. There was a white audi SUV that had smashed into Kelly's Mercedes Benz , which in turn pushed into our truck causing damage that I have never seen in real life before. As I approached the scene, I saw Rob running and an individual running in front of him, the white audi had the drivers door open with no one in there. As Rob yelled hey, where are you going? Stop! It became clear the suspect, a drunk driver was fleeing the scene. Rob sprinted after the suspect and was able to get him to the ground about a block from the accident.
What seemed like hours ticked by as we waited for the police and EMS to arrive, the driver of the Audi visibly injured in his head and with a severe shoulder dislocation lay on the ground. Rob got him to talk and tell us his name, and by this time the home owners where the suspect had laid came out. He was a retired EMT, and was able to take over the situation until the police arrived. Once the suspect was in capable hands we walked back over to the scene of the accident and began the long process of writing police reports, cleaning out our truck, calling for a tow, making a claim with our insurance and figuring out what we were going to do for the night. In speaking with the responding officer he thought the driver was doing 70-80 miles per hour just based on the damage of the vehicles on a residential street. We are so lucky that there was no one out in the vehicles or on the street at the time of the incident as we were only a few minutes away from heading out there to leave.
Our costume
Kelly's Mercedes Benz
Our Truck
The Audi that caused the incident
Thankfully, my in-laws live in the Cleveland area and they were able to come get us and let us stay at their house for the night. By the time we got into bed it was after 4 AM and we could not sleep, with thoughts of our evening and all of the terror involved swirling through our heads. As I write this I feel the sleepy burn in my eyes that indicates my lack of sleep. We were back up by 9 AM today to call rental companies in order to be able to drive home.
When we pulled into the driveway we were never happier to see our homestead and our goat family. The whole incident made us realize how lucky we are to have every day, and how quickly things can change in the blink of an eye. I immediately went to the barn to hug all of my goats tightly. I am so thankful to have all of the blessings in my life and my goats are blessings that I count twice. Stay safe, Happy Goating and please whatever you do, do not drink and drive.