Getting Smashed Without the Boos

Hi. Remember how I'm in Alaska and am having a grand 'ole adventure and can't be bothered with silly things like blogging all my grand adventures? Just checking.Well I have an adventure for you that I though should be posted.

I got in a car crash.

In Alaska.

In the middle of nowhere Alaska.

Actually, it was Mile Post 165 on the Parks Highway, Alaska. So it was somewhere, but even the Alaska State Trooper said we were in the middle of nowhere. Troopers know their stuff.

Mitch, Landon (a friend) and I had gone to Anchorage for the weekend (that will be another post entirely because we also had awesome adventures there). On Saturday, we picked up my friend Valerie from the airport. She was flying in from Bethel, Alaska (if you're ever bored, here's a fun thing about Bethel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXQYrKiYQZw&feature=share but Valerie tells me a lot of it was dramatized, go figure).

The next morning we went to church that turned out to be a Samoan ward (church is still true, even in Samoan), and then started to make our way back up to Fairbanks. It was about a 6 hour drive, and I started us off. Here's us about 30 minutes before the crash:

I was getting really sleepy, so I pulled off and Mitch started driving. It started to rain fairly hard, as it is known to do at any time while driving on Alaska roads. Mitch had his cruise control on, and we were coming around a curve, and he knew he needed to slow down so he tapped on his brake to release the cruise control, but we started to hydroplane instead. He over corrected the wheel, which made us do a 180 into the opposite lane. We paralleled the side of the road for awhile until we hit a big construction sign that lights up, which spun us around again but stopped us.

Yes, we were in an accident but we were very blessed in many ways.

1) We didn't hit anyone. There was a car going opposite of us that saw the whole thing happened and later the guy helped out a lot, but we didn't hit him. Also, off to the left is a pull out and there was an RV parked there. They said they saw the sign coming at them, but it was so heavy it stopped soon enough.

2) We crashed in a great place. We were very close to going off into a ravine, while not steep would have caused a lot more injuries. The accident happened in the same spot as a pull off, so we didn't have to stand around in the forest and when all the emergency vehicles came it made it very convenient.

3) There were people there to help us out. The RV people and guy who was coming from the opposite direction directed traffic, and Paul (that was his name) let us sit in his car while we were waiting.
4) We got cell phone reception. For a majority of the road you can't get any cell reception, but thankfully Landon's phone got just enough for Mitch to call 911.

5) It stopped raining.

6) No one was seriously injured.

7) Besides Valerie's deodorant and my new bottle of hair mousse, there was no damage to any of our things.

And of course the above list isn't in order of most important. We all know #5 should be #1. Yes, #5. 

As soon as the car came to a stop the aforementioned witnesses rushed over to us. Mitch and I were fine and easily opened our doors and walked out; the brunt of the damage happened on the passenger side (Landon was front passenger side, Valerie was back passenger side). Besides a cut on my head (which I think was from flying glass), there was no blood. Valerie was disoriented and kept saying "what just happened? I'm so confused." Landon was groaning but perfectly conscious.

We were finally able to get Valerie to come out of the car and put her in Paul's car. She was in slight shock and asked multiple times "where are my parents?" They're in Bethel. "Where are we?" Two hours outside of Denali. "What just happened?" We were in a car accident. "Am I bleeding?" No. "Are you okay?" Yes. And then the questions would start over again.

You can't see it in the picture, but the wheel was shoved into the inside of the car. No wonder Valerie was the worse out of all of us.

I was concerned, but her pupils weren't dilated and I couldn't see any visible head trauma, so I wasn't too worried. She was complaining about her ribs and hip, and I felt them to make sure nothing was broken and as far as I could tell with all my years of medical training (read here, no years) nothing was broken. I just reassured her and caressed her hand, and talked to her calmly. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty level headed during the whole thing.

Mitch called the Troopers and Landon wandered from here to there. It took the Trooper probably 30-45 minutes to finally get there, and the ambulance another 30 or so minutes after that. One of the rescue trucks was able to pull our car off the main road. Between that time there were multiple people who pulled over to offer assistance. Alaskans are seriously some of the best people.

The paramedics looked at Valerie first and decided they should probably take her to the hospital. They asked if the rest of us were okay, and we made them look at Landon because his head hurt. Landon had gotten a mild concussion the month before (it was work related) so he really didn't want to have to go through all that again, but because of that they decided they should take him too. And so of course they had to strap him down, even though he had been up and walking about just fine. He was pissed.

I think he looks adorable with a neck brace.

The fun part for Valerie and Landon was getting to ride 2.5 hours to the nearest hospital bound to a flat board. Yep, two and a half hours. In Wasilla (that's where Sarah Palin's from). Valerie got pain meds and joined the world of the drugged up, but Landon didn't get any pain meds and said the ambulance ride was worse than the accident. I think he was just being a baby (love you Landon!).

Landon is one of the happiest people I know and was a positive ball of energy through out the whole thing. While riding down to Wasilla the paramedics told him they were going to have to cut his pants off to check his hips and thighs and he said "Nope, you're not cutting them. They're brand new pants. Take them off." Which they did. He told us later "I was wearing skinny jeans, I don't know why they couldn't have checked my hips with my pants on!"

Soon after the accident I called Kiana. Her and her family have become great friends and I consider them part of my Alaskan family. I asked if she would come meet us in Denali, and without hesitation she came down right away.

So while Landon and Valerie got to ride in the fun mobile, the Trooper offered to take Mitch and I up to Denali, about a 1.5 hour ride north. I learned a lot about Alaska State Troopers and Mitch learned he never wanted to be arrested because it was so uncomfortable riding in the back of a cop car.

Kiana and us got to Denali about the same time. Valerie's parents were flying to Anchorage from Bethel, but I felt like she needed me until they got there. And we couldn't abandon Landon. So Kiana was nice enough to drive us down to Wasilla, which from Denali was probably 3.5 hours. Yes, we were on that road a lot that day. And Kiana is the best.

We had to leave most of our stuff in the car at the scene, because we couldn't load it all up in the Trooper's car, so thankfully Kiana brought down her dad's big truck and we transported everything into her truck. The Trooper told Mitch we had two days to get it towed, or he would be fined for some sort of littering. Good news, we were able to get a tow truck that will do it for $350 because we're giving him the car for scrap parts. It could have cost upwards of $2,000 to tow it because of once again, we were in the middle of nowhere Alaska.

On a happier note, as Kiana, Mitch and I were driving back down that forsaken road, Mt. Denali was out. You may remember me telling you it's so tall it creates its own weather, so it's usually covered in clouds. I've only seen it about three times. Of course we stopped to take pictures.

Yeah, that faint blue hill is actually 20,320 feet tall. Once again, pictures don't do it justice. You feel so small, even though you're standing so far away from it.

Mitch and Kiana dancing the traditional celebratory dance when Denali is visible.

Kiana showing how the fireweed is so tall she could pee in it. And she wears the sunglasses to protect her identity. I don't argue with her about it.

So we finally get down to Wasilla. By this point Landon has been discharged and was hanging out with Valerie. He only suffered cervical strain (pain in the neck). When I went in to see Valerie she was back to Valerie intelligence and was with it. She had no head trauma and the only injury she sustained was a small fracture on the wing part on one of her vertebra. Yeah, don't ask me to name the actual bone, just know it was small. She also got discharged that night and went with her parents.

Once again, people are awesome, and we were able to stay at Kiana's aunt's house that night (she lived in the area). I would have cried had we had to get yet another hotel.

Then today we made our way back to Fairbanks.

Whew. It's really late, but I decided to get this written down before I forget it but mainly before I get too lazy to write it down. No promises on posting the rest of the adventure, but I promise I'll put pictures on facebook!