A Horrible Car Wreck- The end of our Tour

We had a great screening and time in Columbia, MO and Lawrence, KS. We were really excited to get home to Denver though, so we decided to drive through the night from Lawrence to Denver (an 8 to 9 hour drive). We haven't really been driving at night for the entire tour and I hate driving at night, but we were both really awake and figured we wouldn't be able to really sleep on Thursday night anyway. So, right after the screening, we packed up and got back onto I-70 heading west. Everything went fine for a couple of hours.

Hays, Kansas
We stopped to get gas here. Courtney got coffee and I got a red bull. We were just pulling onto the highway and picking up speed. The next thing I knew Courtney was screaming and the car was swerving uncontrollably. I had no idea what was going on, I thought that maybe the car just lost control completely. Then we did a couple of 360s. The whole time I wasn't panicked, I was just wondering "When is the car going to stop moving and please don't let the crash be too bad." The car kept spinning out of control for a few more seconds and then we were off the road and smashed into a grassy ditch and the car flipped over and it was upside down and so were we.

I remember hitting my head really hard into the front windshield. Redbull on my jeans. Realizing that there was no way I was going to be able to get out my side of the car because it was smashed into the ground. Trying to undo a seatbelt while upside down. Courtney frantically asking me if I could get out. I undid the belt and got out her side of the car and there was smoke everywhere and I told her that we had to get away from the car. My main thought was that maybe the car was going to explode so we just had to get away from it. We ran along the side of the highway and waved down someone immediately. Some older white men in a white van. I saw a lot of blood on my hand but I had no idea where I was bleeding - nothing really hurt. I realized that my hand was cut up. Courtney got in the car and turned it off (it was still running). We got our purses and miraculously my cell phone was right outside the wreckage. I saw the smashed red bull can. It was crumpled.

Courtney told me that a deer was standing in the road and she had tried to swerve to avoid it and lost control. She barely even moved the steering wheel. We were in a rollover car wreck. I didn't see my life flash before my eyes, or a white light, or have any epiphanies. The cops and the ambulance came. The paramedics cleaned my hand and bandaged it and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I said no and they left. Right after they left my neck started hurting and my head and I felt like I couldn't do anything except lay down. I think my body was in a state of shock. I was shaking uncontrollably as Courtney and the cop started getting all of our belongings (our lives, three months) out of the car. All of our stuff was ok. I tried to sit up and everything was spinning out of control. The cops called the ambulance back and they looked at my head and neck and asked me some questions and they said they thought I would be ok but really sore. I didn't go to the hospital again. Which I'm really happy about because I didn't need to and the bills would have been horrible. I sat in the cop car and watched them get all of our stuff.

While sitting in the cop car I looked down and noticed that a lot of my hair was falling out and realized that I had cut my head on the windshield. I called a few people but then my phone went dead. The tow truck flipped the car and most of our stuff was put back into the car. They took it away. The cop dropped us off at a Super 8 Motel. My back hurt a lot. I took some baths and it felt better.

Courtney's mom came and got us the next day at about noon. We went to the auto shop and saw how smashed up the car was. It was literally totalled beyond any hope of repair. It was even more shocking seeing the car the next day and knowing that we were able to just get up and walk away from an accident like that. We are really lucky not to be dead right now. There was a black van in the garage that had gotten into a wreck in the same place on the highway that we did about a week prior. The towguy said that one of the people in that wreck didn't live.

We were five hours away from home. We've been gone three months and not gotten into an accident. What a way to finish this trip. I'm glad that we are both alive.

I have some pictures of the car that I might upload when I get the chance.