In The Blink Of An Eye

I am currently driving from Tennessee to Wahington with my son Jackson, his wife Brandi,a dog and my 2 month old twin grandaughters. We ended up taking two cars with me and Brandi in the van, Jackson and Magatha the dog behind. The first day was chaos of course - the landlord needed to do a walk through at a turtle like pace, we had way too much stuff...we left almost two hours later than intended. Since none of us have traveled with babies  the drive is a learning curve. Stopping every two to three hours seems to work best for everyone. I have to walk for my clotting disorder so I can multi task walking Maggie  and then the babies get released, fed, changed. During our drive I switched off with Jack to give him a break, the truck next to me had a large object bounce off and of course bounce up and under mine. It broke some plastic and knocked the car out of alignment - nothing major but didn't help. We arrived later than planned at the hotel but did our 600+ miles. The next day went way better, we had it down to a science. I had just switched off with Brandi and  I randomly was checking my mirror to make sure Jackson was behind me. I looked at the exact time Jackson lost control of his car. What actually happened was while changing lanes he didn't realize the truck in the next lane had caught up to him, he overcompensated and spun out safely across the front of the truck into the grass - he missed being obliterated by a hair. But what I saw in my mirror was the truck barreling foward, Jackson's car spinning and then I could not see him - it looked like the truck hit him and sent the car careening off the road. I pulled over and Brandi ran out while I backed up -I could not see Jackson or the driver's side. But then there he was with Brandi starting to make calls and yes I did cry hard. For a moment there I did not know if he was even still alive, my time spent on a trauma surgical unit always drove home that it does not always happen to someone else. An hour down the road he got a flat tire - in the middle of a very desolate highway in South Dakota. But we had phone service, he called his insurance that sent a repair guy. I used my GPS and found a hotel that took dogs and babies 20 minutes down the road. When we got here the owner was so sweet - she opened the rooms before I checked in so Brandi could bring the girls in out of the heat. There'a decent mom and pop restaurant across the lot and even more hilarious the place Jackson got all new tires and the car aligned is next door. I celebrated last night with grilled cheese and tomato and a chocolate shake so thick it was ice cream with a straw.  Yes we'rea little behind schedule but given how much worse this day could have been I'll take it.