Christmas Adventure
Dec 25
Posted: under Anecdotes.
Tags: Christmas, Philadelphia, travel
Kathy and I left two days before Christmas to visit our daughter Karen in Philadelphia. Since she lives in a studio apartment she arranged with her landlord to let us sleep in his RV which he keeps parked behind her apartment. He left the keys with her, and she went in earlier in the day to turn the heat on low in preparation for our stay. When done she locked it up and went about her daily business.
She works at the Philadelphia airport, and since we were flying from Chicago – O’Hare to PHL she planned to wait there for our arrival after her shift. Since the weather had turned snowy before our scheduled flight it was delayed. The original 4:25pm departure was changed to 4:40pm. Not too bad. Then 6:05pm. Still not bad. Then 7:15pm, then 8:15pm, then back to 7:15pm, then again to 8:15pm. We finally took off about 9:15pm.
Karen also works at McDonald’s and was scheduled to work at 5:00am the next morning, so she called in because she knew she would be getting to bed quite late after an already long day. She didn’t know just how late that would be.
We arrived about midnight Philly time and had to wait till about 12:45am for the luggage. We then began the long trek to her apartment. Since she works at PHL she was parked in the employee lot to which they provide a shuttle. We weren’t aware just how far that was, so we experienced the long shuttle ride she takes every day that she works. From there it is nearly a 45 minute drive under normal conditions. These weren’t normal conditions. The roads were icy and slick. The emergency responders were kept busy with numerous traffic accidents. Some multi-vehicle accidents were causing the shutdown of several sections of major roadways. Although Kathy and I both felt a little uncomfortable about how closely Karen was tailing the vehicles ahead of her, we didn’t want to nag her since we understood she was anxious to get home, well actually more so to get something to eat since neither she nor I had had any sustenance since lunch. She pulled off the main route to head toward a place she knew would be open during the wee hours of the morning.
Then the excitement began. On a curve she hit a patch of black ice. She fought to keep from sliding too close to the parked cars on our right. I was sitting in the back so I was more aware of Kathy’s reaction than of the actual predicament. She was in the front and could see clearly what was about to transpire. I said, “Don’t overcompensate.” She crossed the center line after successfully avoiding the parked cars. But she didn’t relax even though there was no oncoming traffic. Again I said, “Don’t overcompensate.” But she was more concerned about getting back into her lane. Then the back of the car began to swerve outward and the front of the car struck the driver’s side door of a parked car. Karen’s car then spun on around until it came to a stop facing the direction we were heading. I had her pull on over to the curb and call the police.
Of course the police were quite busy and we had to wait a long time. As we sat there waiting several vehicles hit that same patch of ice and lost and thankfully regained control. I wondered whether we were safe sitting there but didn’t say anything to that effect. As the police finally approached they also showed some difficulty maintaining control on the ice patch. They asked very few questions about the details of the accident. However, since the car is still registered in our name they noticed we were from Illinois and commented that we should be used to driving in this type of weather. I replied that we generally get snow rather than ice.
Since the front bumper of the car had previously been damaged by a botched attempt to tow it, and had not yet been repaired, Karen’s car suffered only minimal damage. The lower panel of the driver’s side door suffered obvious cosmetic damage and the car slid sideways till the front tire on the passenger side was pressed against the curb. Thank God no one was injured, and neither car was disabled.
After getting the accident report filed they sent us on our way and Karen wanted me to drive the rest of the way. She gave up on the idea of stopping for something to eat. So the rest of that trip was uneventful. But when we got to the RV we couldn’t get in. We tried unsuccessfully for quite a while to get the door open before giving in to the option of sleeping in the apartment, Kathy and I in Karen’s bed and Karen on the couch. We slept late into the morning, though none of us quite soundly. Then we went out to eat breakfast. Karen decided to go to Denny’s, but when we got there we found a note on the door that their water pipes had frozen and burst, and were therefore closed. We then ventured to IHOP. It was nearly lunchtime by the time we got there.
After eating we went shopping for supplies (hardware, insulation, shelving, etc.) for the apartment. The rest of the day was spent assembling, hanging, winterizing, and generally wearing ourselves out before an early bedtime.
Tracy Henness
