Tournaments, Seminars, and Vehicular Adventures

Well, it was an adventurous weekend.

Saturday morning we went up to West Jordan for the Friendship Open, where I competed with our demonstration team. James is still out because of his internship (which finishes this week...wow, time flies!) but I was grateful for his morale support! This was our first performance following the latest round of auditions, and it was definitely trial-by-fire for the newbies. Sans a few mishaps, the demo went well, although I was feeling VERY pregnant! James is planning to start back up in April. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back to the team relatively quickly after Baby J is born. We'll see how it goes!

 

We left the tournament immediately following the demo team competition, and made our preparations. Saturday afternoon we drove to Colorado so that I could attend a USAT referee seminar there. We arrived in CO around 12:30 and settled in for the night. We had decided to try sleeping out in our car, and it turned out way better than we expected. We had taken the seats out of my car, and piled the back with couch cushions, camping pads, sleeping bags, pillows and blankets. We were very comfortable (which was a concern, considering my prego state).

The referee seminar was great. I attended the CO seminar last year, and enjoyed the experience, so I was glad it worked out for me to go again this year. The seminar was taught by Master Bob McKenna and Master Linda Kimmich, both of whom I had met previously at Nationals, and whom I respect a great deal. I was glad to get updated information, and spend time with some great referees.

We left for home after the seminar. It's an 8-hour trip, and we took turns driving for about two hours at a time. We were only about 50 miles from home, down Spanish Fork canyon, when a couple of deer darted out in front of us. James was asleep at the time. I was able to dodge the first deer, but the second smacked right into us, and then went under the car. It scared the living daylights out of me, and James woke in a panic, not knowing what had happened. I pulled over, my adrenaline going like crazy. Some guys behind us swerved around the deer and stopped; they came back to check on us, then moved the deer out of the road. Once my heart had stopped pounding, we continued on our way, but only for a few more miles before the car gave out. The radiator had clearly been damaged, and was leaking fluid.

We called for roadside assistance. (Thank goodness for cell phones!) It took ages for the insurance company to coordinate. Thankfully we had all those blankets in the car with us! But because we were in such a remote area, the cost of towing was prohibitively expensive. James ended up calling his family. To our extreme relief and gratitude, James's brother Matthew was able and willing to come get us. When he arrived, he was able to tow us a few miles down the canyon to a rest stop (those few miles were pretty terrifying, not going to lie!) and then drove us home. It was about 4:30am by the time we finally made it! James got about an hour of sleep before he had to be up again to get to work in Salt Lake.

This afternoon was spent dealing with the car. James's brothers, bless them!, rented a truck and went back down the canyon for my car. They picked me up and we took it to the auto shop. Fortunately our insurance covers a rental car, so I was picked up at the shop by the rental company. We're still waiting for our insurance appraiser to evaluate the estimate from the auto shop, but we're hopeful that the car is not totaled, and we'll be getting Roxanne back soon. Fortunately, I also had a prenatal appointment this morning, and everything was fine with me and Baby J.

We are grateful that we were not hurt at all, and we are so grateful to James's family for their help and generosity, and we are grateful for insurance, and we are grateful to be home. Ironically, we're headed back to Colorado this weekend for their state championship. You can be assured that we'll be praying for an uneventful trip!!