Like most Sundays we headed out to church about 10 minutes late. It seems like it is always difficult to make it there on time, but nevertheless we arrived and enjoyed an excellent Sunday school and a powerful church service. Little did I know that the encouraging morning was going to turn into a deadly afternoon.
Back at the house all of us girls, and one of the girls families got together for a Sunday lunch. It was small and laid back, a great way to fellowship and spend time with one another. About an hour or so into our little get together, a few of us had to take off to go to our church's "convalescent ministry." Unbeknown to us this ministry had been cancelled and it wasn't until we were on our way that we were informed. As we drove we got the call saying it was cancelled, but we decided to continue heading there anyway. There were still old people waiting and needing love and prayer, so we chose to do a little impromptu ministry thing. Just as we were about to arrive the guy leading our convalescent escapade got another phone call.
"Hello? Yes? Oh, absolutely. We would love to. Alright, see you later." He hung up the phone.
My friend, our leaders sister, and I sat there in wonder at what had just taken place. "We're heading to Fremont" our leader proclaimed. "You guys don't have to come if you don't want, but I just volunteered to pick up a couch."
Of course we were full of adventure and eagerly agreed to join him on the journey. It was about an hour there and an hour back, and we had to get home in time for evening service. So we went and picked up a truck, piled in and began our trip.
Now this was not any normal truck. It was an extremely tiny, with three seats in a tight-fitting car, with stick shift and manual steering, and that's not even the worst of it. You can't go over 65 on the freeway in this truck and it feels like it is going to break down at any minute. So that gives you just a slight picture of what we were dealing with.
About twenty minutes into the drive we decided to needed a pick-me-up to make it through the journey so we stopped off at a Starbucks to grab some coffee. The first thing that went wrong was the parking situation. All the parking spots were parallel and when you have a manual steering wheel cranking it to the side to fit into a parallel parking spot was not easy. We took about ten minutes just trying to get in the spot without hitting the car behind us.
Ordering the coffee was a task in itself as well. The workers all seemed to be new and it took five minutes just to order one drink. We were trying to be gracious and kind and not let frustration and annoyance with the slow service control us.
Finally, we were back on the road singing and laughing about this random adventure we had ended up on. Suddenly we realize the merging exit was coming up far quicker then expected. Our driver cranked on the steering wheel and prayed we didn't hit any cars as we crossed over lines to reach the exit. Cars were honking and flying by as veered to the left.
We made it to the exit just in time and realized that the road had a sharp turn and went in a loop to merge onto the other freeway. Again our driver cranked on the steering wheel and slammed on the brake as we nearly went head first into the metal railing on the side of the road. I was clinging to the side of the door, which felt like it was about to fall off, and my friend in the middle was clinging to me, both of us girls were yelling and screaming in terror. All the while our driver was calm and collected, regaining control and making it around the loop fast enough to accelerate and merge on to the other freeway.
We were finally back up to 65 and driving smoothly (if you could call this truck smooth) down the interstate. We made it to Fremont, still alive, but the trouble wasn't over. The couch we were there to pick up was nearly as long as the truck itself. Opening up the bed, we slid it in and realized that the end was sticking out quite a bit. Nevertheless, we strapped that thing down as best we could, stuffed the pillows under it so they wouldn't blow away and piled back in the truck.
Now there was three of us stuffed in this tiny truck, with a giant, few hundred pound couch on the back. We probably drove about 50 mph on the way home and I know I was praying all the way there that the couch wouldn't go flying off the end. We made it home, safe alive but slightly shaken up happy to be out of that stuffy truck.
Little did we know when we started out that we would nearly die on that trip, but all in all it was a great day and a great adventure!
Happy we're alive!
(I'm on the left, my friend is in the middle, the leader of our escapade is on the right.)
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