Blaam!!! a tire blew.

Damn. 'Just hold it steady Alyssa'.

Alyssa held the 75 Newport true for a while, then when it curved to the right she swung the wheel to the left. Then back to the right. With elbows flying she corrected hard back to the left again. 'Alyssa what are you doing???' I yelled. The horizon and our lives swung around and around while fate or God settled on the outcome.

We had started our spin on the right median. When we got out of the car we found it on the edge of the center median. I love this car even more now. It did a 360 across the freeway at 50+ mph and didnt' overturn. I am not sure they make cars like this anymore.

I asked Alyssa what was going through her head while we were spinning. She said she was thinking 'this sucks.' Me and Amy were not so calm. I am reminded of the story of the eldery lady who died a peaceful death in her sleep, but her passengers went with terror and screaming and panic.

We put a spare on, drove to Grand Junction, and helped a junk yard owner search through his rims for one that matched our ruined one. It took a half hour, but we finally found the rusted treasure. He sold it to me for $30, a good deal for both of us.

On we went to the tire dealer that carried the brand that blew. It was a relatively new tire and should not have done that. The manager was generous enough to give us a brand new one for just the cost of mounting and balancing. Maybe us wheeling the shredded tire into the showroom with talk of how we almost died on the highway in front of his customers helped him draw some empathy from his wellspring of humanity.

But what a story. I began sharing it immediately, all over the West. The clerk at the Ace Hardware in Grand Junction, the gas attendant at the Conoco in Baker, Utah, the auto parts store workers in Seaside, California, all enjoyed my tale of how my daughter drove us in to a spin across the highway. I explained that we thought we were dead and 2 hours later me and my two daughters were cruising down the highway again on our vacation to the ocean. I have written about appreciating day to day life and I think my kids understood, at least for a while. I sure as heck felt real fortunate to be still in one piece.

Then, A few days later, while driving on Highway 1 just north of Big Sur California, we were passed by a little car with a big carpet roll tied to its top. I was at the wheel since Alyssa lost her driving privileges for a couple of decades. After the car passed I was thinking about our 360 and remarked that 'you have to be so careful because accidents can happen even on the open highway.' As soon as I said the word 'highway' the cord holding the carpet snapped and the large roll bounced down on the highway right in front of us.

I slammed on the brakes and held my course. (You do not want to go off the road when you driving on Highway 1 north of Big Sur.)

As we prepared for impact the carpet rolled to the right, just out of our way before we passed.

I still can't figure this out, but feel like we were being watched over.

I barely missed the pole and went off the road, down the embankment, and into a ditch between the highway and the raised railroad track. My car traveled then for more a hundred yards before it stopped.

When I realized how close a call it had been, it felt as if I had had guardian angels look after me

. . . . Jean Shinoa Bolan in 'Crossing to Avalon'