highway adventures

Yesterday morning, Sam and I set out on the 7.5 hour drive from Springfield, IL to Manhattan, KS in a rental car provided by Sam interviewers. Because we knew we'd be driving through a potential ice storm, we bought all the insurance we could, packed blankets and food, and hoped for the best.

We made it to within 10 miles of our destination when we hit a patch of black ice, spun out and ended up in the median facing the wrong direction. Luckily, there were no cars nearby and no guardrails, so we and the car were not visibly damaged, just stuck. As Sam was trying to push us out, a friendly tow truck traveling in the other direction stopped, and two guys got out to help us. We were soon back on the road, although our car no longer liked to go more than 40 mph.

We made it to less than a mile from the hotel, when a truck slid into our rear bumper while we were stopped at a red light, scratching up the paint and breaking a tail light. It really wasn't enough damage to worry about, except that we were driving a rental car. We called the cops and got a lovely incident report all written up.

So this morning, instead of heading out to explore the K-State campus, I'm going to be on the phone with the rental car company and maybe some insurance agencies sorting things out. It seems that my adventures usually come with paperwork.