Day 15 (the beauty of starting on January 1). I woke up… it was freezing cold… literally! I mean…I did crash the day before because of ice! So, I get up, I watch the news… more than 104 accidents since midnight.I guess that means there were a lot of Floridians in Texas.
Actually, apparently there isn’t Ice like that in Texas normally… I just happened to be lucky enough to get there at a rare time, and witness this phenomenon 1st hand. Since it was so friggin cold, I thought I’d take some photos of this ice. Ice on trees, Ice on cars… oh yeah! Cars! I made sure to take some photos of it. After that, it was back to leaves, berries, signs…. Ice was everywhere, and even the ground I walked on was slippery as hell (when it’s frozen over, of course). I took photos until my hands were so cold that it was past pain. 1st they hurt, then they didn’t, then they hurt so much, and went numb. I could not even feel the button on my camera to take the pictures. After coming inside, my hands started to thaw. Ouch! I ran them under warm water, and they hurt!
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I sat around and waited to hear from my insurance. Like that would happen so soon, right? So.. I worked on images, played on MySpace (a great way to meet people, a wonderful way to completely waste all your free time), and watched the news. Tanner took us to lunch. It was BBQ, but more of a fast-food than a Pit-BBQ that I love. It was still pleasant. After he left, I decided it was time to make it to Kansas. My car was still not looked at though, so… I asked John to look at it. He Zip-Tied my bumpers on (front and back). Hooray Zip-Ties!! For the record, it’s one week (exactly) later (I wrote this entry on the 22nd of January, when I had some time in Utah), and those zip-ties are still holding my bumpers on…. 2,200 miles later. I also had him drive the car around the block to see what he thought of my alignment — just fine.

I had actually tried to call a few dealerships to see if they could check me out… even how long it might take to fix some stuff. They were not too helpful, but one of them agreed to take a look. That’s all they did though– walk around the car, tell me it’d take at least 2 weeks to fix.. but that it looks fine, and if it runs, it runs. They didn’t look under the hood… they didn’t drive it around the block… but they said it seems fine– a conclusion I had arrived at on my own :).

I had packed up all my things before I left John’s place.. just in case I’d be good to go right after the dealership. I also took a few photos of him, as I do for all my couches, I did the interview. I’ve been trying to help every single couch, and have been doing a great job of it. I’m not sure how I can help someone who’s importing performance vehicles from Japan- although I did offer to do a fun photo shoot with some models and his sports cars if he has a few handy when I’m in town in May or June.
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It was time to drive. With crossed fingers that pray “Dear __________ (your entity of choice), please let my bumpers stay on my car without any problems…. also please let my car keep working, and my tires stay whole.” I drove…. I drove and I drove… and I drove… and I stopped for gas. I made it to Oklahoma. It was beautiful. I liked the trees and snow… now armed with my new knowledge of what ice can do to you….

I took a few photos of trees, and the sun-setting in Oklahoma. I say I like Oklahoma… I wonder if it’s just because of the fact I didn’t crash my car there. Mike had already gone bowling, and we would have to go bowling another time.

I made it to Kansas, and then to Mike’s in time to celebrate his birthday. I can’t believe he’s only 20. I met his parents…. they’re very sweet. I met many of his friends. We had cake… ice-cream cake actually! Why ice cream cake? Apparently, because I had mentioned it in a conversation. Someone actually paid that much attention to something I said in passing. That’s how we came up with the list of what we’re doing… I told him to make a list of cool stuff we can do, and he did! Skydiving, drifting, crossing lakes in humvees, and of course, bowling! I’ll be going along on Navigator’s Run, of course, but it’s still cool to do crazy stuff when I pop in other times.

I took photos of the cake thing. We were going to take some vehicles on a frozen 4×4 trail, but one of the characters, Shane, got his truck stuck in the ice… driving on the frozen river. We were going to help him out, but apparently, we got the wrong side of the river. We got to the river, parked on this bridge, and started walking to find Shane’s truck… there was a descent over frozen ground… I decided to take a running head start, and “bowl for people”I slid down the hill, and collided with some legs. I then tried to slide down the hill to the river. It would’ve been faster to walk the path, as most people wanted… but I wanted to run on the frozen river– and I did! I tried to ice-skate with my sneakers. The more I went to my left, the deeper on the river I got. The river was only pseudo-frozen, and some areas actually started to crack a bit. I left everyone else in my (ice) dust…. and finally found Shane’s truck. It took a long time to get back to the car, then back to Mike’s house… screw it-not worth going into the details… but we made it to Mike’s then back to the river, then back again with a 2nd truck. I got lots of footage of the rescue effort. Thank goodness for infrared. Long story short- the truck was NOT rescued that day.

Got home, worked on some pictures, and finally went to sleep.

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