
Hello friends! It’s been a while since we’ve posted tasty treats and the picture above is one of the reasons why. October has been a rather stressful month so far and unfortunately the site has been a bit stagnant. I don’t normally do non-food posts but I thought I’d let you know what’s been going on in the Creek for the last couple of weeks.
Two Tuesdays ago, I was in a pretty bad wreck on 75/85 during rush hour. I couldn’t sleep so I got up and headed to work early (first mistake). Just before I got off of the interstate, I saw a tractor-trailer hit a car. The car went from the far left lane to the far right lane and a hubcap came straight towards me.
Knowing there was nothing I could do to avoid the hubcap, I braced and was going to do everything I could to run over it and stay in my lane. At the same time, the guy in the lane next to me swerved to avoid t-boning (and probably seriously injuring) the lady in the first car, hitting me and knocking me from the far right lane to the wall on the far left lane (luckily I didn’t hit the wall). The side air bag deployed and somehow there were no further collisions.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Atlanta, 75/85 is called the connector and it’s where 2 major interstates come together for 16 lanes of traffic fun. 275,000 cars pass through this area each day. Chuck from Stuff You Should Know describes Atlanta traffic as, “everyone drive as fast as you possibly can until someone wrecks” so it is absolutely amazing that no one was seriously injured. I do apologize to anyone who was late to work on Tuesday October 7th.
I land on the left side of the road and get out of my car because I don’t know if it’s going to explode (it wasn’t going to) and call Michael to calm me down. While I’m on the phone with him, I realize that the sun hasn’t come up and I’m alone on the side of the road wearing black so I go back to my car to call the police.
Within minutes, a HERO unit comes up to stop traffic to move me to the right side of the road and 911 calls to check on me a couple of times. The police arrive super quickly and call tow trucks. Statements are taken and, because neither of us hit the car that the tractor-trailer hit, the cop had to handle it as 2 separate wrecks. Unfortunately that meant that the guy that hit me was at fault in our wreck. Good on him that he hit me or that lady would have been in really bad shape. He didn’t get a citation and the cop said he probably would have done the same thing.
I got a lift from the tow truck driver who was very helpful in telling me what to do next. Having never been in a wreck, I had no idea what to do. I called the insurance company and filed a claim on the way to Bavarian Collision on Howell Mill in Atlanta. After I got off of the phone, I noticed that the driver had a tablet mount and a phone mount on his windshield. The tablet screen was turned off but the phone screen was playing a sports game. The tow truck driver that took me and my possibly totaled Element from the scene of my traumatic wreck was watching TV while driving…
We arrived at Bavarian Collision and I was standing outside on the phone. Jabari, one of the owners, saw me, shook his head because I was standing outside, brought me inside and offered me a place to sit, a private room, a cup of coffee and anything else that I could have wanted. To say that he treated me like family would be an understatement. He seemed genuinely concerned for my well-being and talked me through what was happening and what happens next. I wanted the Element fixed because I loved it and Honda doesn’t make them anymore, but after meeting Jabari, I also wanted it fixed so that he could do the work and get paid. If you’re in need of body work in Atlanta, call Bavarian Collision and they’ll take care of you.
1,000 phone calls later, I was standing in the lobby of the body shop exhausted and bewildered and not knowing what to do next. Mike, the other owner of Bavarian Collision, asked me if they could give me a ride to [The Name of The Place I Work]. I was confused as to how they knew that I worked for [The Name of The Place I Work] and then noticed that I put my badge on when getting the important things out of my car. Going to a familiar place with people I know was the best idea that I had ever heard at the time so I said, “that would be great” and off we went. Again – amazing. Mike dropped me off and I called Michael to come get me and finally I was on my way home.
There’s a lot of terrible news in the world and terrible people doing terrible things to one another. It’s easy to lose faith in mankind, but in times like these, you’re reminded that most people are genuinely good people and care about one another.
Tomorrow: Eff it. We’re going to Disney World!