180

It feels like I've had a few battles for my life lately. Between rogue drivers, getting crushed by a mirror, and a possible stress overload, I feel lucky to be alive. This morning proved to be especially treacherous as I ventured out unwittingly on the "worst commuting day of the year" to take other Roommate to the airport. I had work at 10, so we had decided yesterday that leaving at 8 would give me enough time to get her there and get back before work. When I got back last night, I talked to her and we agreed to leave earlier. We were on the road by 7:15.

The roads were a bit slick, but nothing too crazy. That is until we got to the point of the mountain. Traffic slowed to a near standstill and we were congratulating ourselves on making such an early start. I was sure we were good on time.

But we probably spent a good hour never going above 35, and I started getting worried and disoriented. I'm not sure if it was the snow, the smog, or how long it was taking, but all of the sudden I was nervous that I had missed my exit. I kept driving, but I was scared and felt like I was lost and I was in a time crunch. Yikes!

Then I saw the Belt Route Exit. Perfect. I'm Okay. But I soon realized that there is a freeway exit AND the Belt Route connection at the same place and then I was struck with the knowledge that I was getting off the freeway and passing where I really wanted to go. Crap!

I thought about driving over the gore zone but decided that was a bad idea seeing as it was covered in snow, and I had no idea if it was painted, striped lines, or a gravel pit. So I just exited, drove a loop, and got back on the freeway. I'm an idiot, I know. We were back on the road and connected to the Belt Route just fine. All was going just fine, I could see fairly well, and we were moving along at probably 45. Then the time came to exit. We had made it. Phew!

Or so I thought...

For those of you familiar with Utah freeways, you know that the exit lanes merge into a single lane fairly soon off the exit. Well, the bozo next to me wasn't aware of this when he realized what was going on, he jerked right and this freaked me out so I jerked right to miss him and then it happened. I started fish tailing, right, left, right left...I knew I had no traction at this point and so my thoughts were centered on getting out of the way. This was hard seeing as I could turn my wheel without consequence. Soon enough, however, my front tires caught some gravel or something on the side of the road and caused my car to do a complete 180! We slammed to a stop, but after doing a little inventory, Roommate and I found that not only had not hit anything, both of us were alright. Okay. Breathe!

We sat there staring all the passing cars in the face. They rubbernecked as they passed and I felt about as stupid as I ever have in my life. Holy crap I felt so dumb. Everyone was assessing us, giving us the up down, seeing if we had done anything exciting. Well we had. They missed it. Bummer for them. Then the meanest man in Utah passed us in his blue minivan, feeling super sweet and clapping at us. What a jerk huh? Roommate and I decided that he must drive a snowplow because all snowplow guys are mean.

Well she made it to the airport and it only took us and hour and 45 minutes. And I made it home alive, but a little shaken up.