Surprise, Surprise!

“Travel is a joy, full of surprises. Perhaps some of the most enjoyable times are those where one comes close to disaster: the risks adds spice and make for great stories when you are safely back home again.” ~ Jane Wilson Howarth

It was planned a whole month before going home. This last spring semester, all my finals ended a week earlier than they usually do and just in time for my brother, Weston’s, graduation from college. But, he didn’t know that!

So, I just had to surprise him.

I’ve never surprised anyone like this before and believe me, it was torture. I wouldn’t even allow myself to call him that whole month of May because I was so afraid I would tell him I was coming to his graduation.

Finally, the day came and I flew home to New Mexico where my parents and I would leave on our road trip to Weston’s college in Commerce, Texas.

Road trips with my family are so much fun, but after a full week of finals, including an all nighter, I pretty much slept six of the 13 hour drive there.

I was, however, extremely thankful to be awake for a surprise that none of us planned for.

We had made it to Dallas. My parents say they had never been that route before. If I learned one thing from this trip, I’d say make sure you know where you’re going – even if you have a GPS. Our prius’ GPS was messing with us and my dad was not familiar with the route through Dallas that it took us on.

Another thing I learned on this trip; don’t try to pull out of stand-still traffic to turn into the HOV lane! My dad swears he didn’t see any car coming in that lane, but next thing we know we were hit directly into the left taillight of our car.

Thankfully, everyone was okay. The only inside damage was a little whip lash and some water to go with that. (My mom was holding a water bottle in her hand at the time and, as you can imagine, it all splashed out.)

Back to the story, right when we got hit, I reached my hands over the driver and passenger seats to touch my parents and I just remember saying “We’re okay, we’re okay.” A man driving a gigantic pick-up truck pulls up beside us and yells, “Are you okay?” and “Can you still drive?”

Our in-shock-selves just respond with “Yea, yea…” and the man (still yelling at us) says, “Go, go! Pull to the side! I’ll get you safely across!”

As demanding as he was, that man was our angel for sure. We got off the highway and he zoomed away. The young woman that hit us pulled off safely as well. When she got out her car and walked up to our’s, she was crying and shaking asking if we had any little kids.

Apparently she knew she shouldn’t have been in the HOV lane in the first place.

But really, she was so sweet to us and made sure we were all taken care of. Her car wasn’t half as bad as ours. She actually even ended up giving me her car charger. Apparently the area we were in was not a very good place to be pulled over to the side of the road with no cell phone. Even the EMTs kept telling us we needed to leave. I never really got an answer as to exactly why though.

After all the emotion and paperwork was settled. My parents decided to drive the last hour to Commerce with a broken taillight and a shattered back window.

We stopped at Walmart for food and mom called Weston to let him know what happened. She mentioned my name to him twice!

“We couldn’t use Teige’s navigation because her phone died.”

And

“What kind of cereal do you want, Teige?”

And the whole time I was signaling to her to be quiet. Weston never realized that I was in the car the whole time. He later said that he had no clue and seriously thought mom was just in a little shock still! (I think he was also a little preoccupied with his work at the time.)

So when we pull up to his apartment, it was already dark and I put my head down so he couldn’t see me through the window, but he walks right up to the car to examine the damage and still has no idea. Then, for some reason, he walks right up to my passenger side and, as he opens the door, I stick my head out and jump, yelling “Surprise!”

He was so scared! And very surprised!

Not only did I get to surprise him, but I also got to scare him. What sister would pass up the opportunity to scare her older brother?

Being reunited made for a great end to the crazy day, and car accidents sure do make you appreciate life and family just a little more.

Although there was an unwanted surprise on this road trip, it happened to make the planned surprise even better!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering;

Weston graduated as Suma Cum Laude with a double major in Engineering and Mathematics.

We ended up having to get a rental car for the way back, but still drove the Prius all the way (just with no extra weight from luggage and passengers), only to have it proclaimed totalled.

And now, my parents are driving around happily ever after in their replacement Prius.

Next family road trip? My senior night, please!