Did So Good ...Until the End.

Any normal over-eating sympathizer would have been proud of me while I was away on my journey. I even had some family helping me find healthy choices while we had our large family meals together. (Thanks Aunt Susie!!) I was definitly pleased with my eating decisions ... until our drive home.

Many of you may have already heard some of my driving traumatic experience, however not all the details or how I dealt with it.

Allow me to enlighten you ...

We left for home Sunday shortly before noon. The drive was for the most part uneventful- until something in my dad's Jeep blew as he pulled into a gas station in La Grande, Oregon. 4 hours later Josh, the kids and I left for our "midway" stop for the night. My parents followed in their new rig.

Not too bad for 13 hours on the road right?

Well Monday was a little more exciting. Had I had on a pair of depends I may have a completely different story to tell altogether. Thankfully this is not the case. :)

Josh was feeling sleepy so he pulled over about 10 minutes into our 4 hour drive. I took the wheel and searched our IPOD for some "classy" tunes for me to belt out along with. It's a little humbling for me to admit I was singing at the top of my lungs with Backstreet Boys, Disney, Enya, Seether, Ashley Simpson, Avril, Britney Spears ... and much much more. Like many other people who go back to their music of choice from their high school years, I too enjoy my old embarrassing melodies. However, I digress. This story is about the driving, not the singing!

Rocking out with the entire family snoozing I felt comfortable. This is a big deal because I hate driving. Hate isn't even quite the word for it... it's more like loathe from the bottom of my very being.

About an hour and a half we reached Manastash (between Yakima and Ellensburg) and our easy driving experience began to turn quite scary. Manastash isn't quite a mountain pass because it's actually located between hills; however don't let this fool you. This small "pass" can be quite treatorous especially when there are a large amount of semi-trucks with heavy loads.

Going up the second steep hill our smaller car was having trouble keeping up with the 70 mph speed limit, so I kept it at an even 60. Most of the other drivers on the road were semi-trucks who were going much much slower so I didn't have to worry about people running me over. (Foreshadowing*)

Instead, what I should have been worrying about is what came to pass. Apparently there was a truck struggling to get up the hills and was put-putting up at about 15 mph. Another semi was stuck behind him and probably needed to pass so that he could make it up the hill as well; however he did not check his mirror. My anger at this driver isn't that he slowed me down. My anger is that he pulled out in front of me going 15-30 mph while I was going 60 mph. My anger is that he did this when I was beginning to pass him. My anger is that had someone not been looking out for us on the other side my entire family would have been lodged underneath this trucks trailer.

Seeing this happen in front of me my mind began racing with adrenaline. I screamed and woke my husband up who quite possibly suffered a small heart attack. He yelled.

The car began fish tailing as I slammed on the breaks. The trailer getting closer and closer to us. And then I look in the rear view mirror.

Apparently some guy got bored traveling in his huge RV because there he was chatting away on his cell phone (which is illegal in Washington) coming up on me fairly quickly. (I'm just going to assume he was trying to keep his speed up so he could get up this hill as well.) So here I am, slammed on my breaks to keep from killing us when there is another big vehicle getting ready to squish my family like a can of sardines.

I had a full on panic attack. BAD TIMING. I know.

I began pumping my brakes. If I was going to wreck us I wasn't going to go down easily. Just in time the RV driver realized his folly and jerked his RV to the right and passed us immediately.

Now here's the scary part...

Remember why the semi-truck cut me off in the first place? Yup. There was another semi going about 15 mph ... and he's still there. So here's me starting to get control my car, and now an RV losing control so he doesn't kill himself by slamming into the slow moving semi on the right.

Obviously we came out of that very scary, very horrible situation okay ... but the story isn't done. Oh no. Not yet.

So I'm still in the middle of a panic attack; sobbing and wailing trying to keep the car going up the hill instead of off the cliff. Guess what Josh whips out?!

Several chocolate bars. (My mom had originally intended them for my children. Hmm. I guess that didn't turn out very well for them! HAHA!)

He began "feeding" me chocolate piece after chocolate piece. And whaddya' know!?! I began to calm down. MMMM.... sinful evil chocolate. How I love thee...

I manuever the car into the right lane and we go on our merry way. Or so I had prayed.

To my left comes a large open bed one-tone pickup truck carrying various items. Still hiccuping from my now controlled panic attack I watch this truck warrily. And wouldn't you know it. My dramatic experience turns horrific as a spear-like pole launches out of the bed of the truck and heads STRAIGHT for our windshield.

WHAT TO DO? WHAT TO FREAKING DO????

Even Josh screamed (well more like a manly hollar). Just as my car and this pole were nearing contact it curved down and hit the pavement and I drove over it.

I just drove over a spear that should have killed us.

We should have died.

Twice.

MORE CHOCOLATE PLEASE!!!!

I pulled into a gas station 10 minutes later in Ellensburg and got out. I then walked into said gas station and bought 2 candy bars, 2 bear claw donuts, and a big bag of beef jerky.

Need I mention all food was GONE before we hit Snoqualmie pass??? (30 minutes away.)

I know, I know... I admit that it's pathetic I once again turned to chocolate in my time of need but I have to tell you- I had to make an educated decision. Either kill us because of being tightly-wound... or work extra hard for the next couple of weeks because of a couple extra pounds? I chose the pounds.

To close off of our extra-exciting trip home we also ended up stuck on the pass for an hour due to an accident. Once traffic began moving again we saw a dead body covered by a tarp off of the road.

My prayers that night were the most fervent, heartfelt prayers I have said in a long, long time.

Thank you Lord for protecting me and my family.

(I'm sad I came home with the number higher on the scale, but am thankful I have the chance to correct this so that when my time does come- it's because I'm old and withered.)

*I'll post my Week 19-weigh in tomorrow.