Sunday, November 30, 2008

We went to see Karl...

...today, in St. Louis. Had a great visit, too. This time, I got to see his room. It's not bad, just very tiny!! And it was pretty clean, too!
We took him some of his things that we have been storing here, and our old computer, too. He can't have internet, but he can use it to play games, etc.
We drove back West on I-70 to a Cracker Barrel for dinner, and then we took him shopping for his gifts for Robbie's Christmas. It has been a long time since he has been able to choose the gifts for him, and he was SO excited about doing it! We drove South to a shopping center he knew about, and then back East and South for a Target, too. Karl goes everywhere by using the Metro-link, so sometimes it gets pretty comical as he tries to figure out how to tell Ron what roads to use to get where he wants to go!
After we left him we got back on I-70 to head on home. We had not gone very many miles when we noticed a big traffic jam ahead of us, and we ALL came to a complete stop. We heard sirens coming in back of us and everyone began moving over to their right as much as they could. Sure enough, here came several emergency vehicles in the far left lane : police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks; and in a little bit, here came more of the same. Then the IDIOTS [those who always think THEY can get through a situation like that even though no one else is moving!] decided to try and go down the left lane,too. Of course they were jammed in there and blocking the lane when the next batch of emergency vehicles were trying to get through. Next thing you know, there are Emergency vehicles trying to get past all of us by driving down the right side of the roadway, on the shoulder,etc! And, of course, some people decided that if they could get through there, than THEY should try it, too!! More IDIOTS! In a little bit we could hear more sirens coming in back of us. We could tell that they were making very slow progress. Sure enough, they were making their way through the MIDDLE of all us. Now people were pulling to the right or left to make a path for them to get through. Two cars ahead of us the people just sat there with the police cars right behind them using their sirens and horns to get them to move. Finally, they got out of the way! In about 15 or 20 more minutes, we saw police personnel walking among the cars and talking through the window with people. We began to realise that they were giving them instructions on how to move their cars and sending them back the way we had come. Pretty soon, they came to us and told us to take our turn around,too. They sent us back up an on-ramp and directed us through a residential area, past the bottle neck and then back on to I-70. We had the radio on and knew there was an accident, etc. but 2 hours or so later, we heard the story. It seems 2 people had hi-jacked a car.
A policeman recognised the vehicle, they saw him as he was calling it in, they rammed his cruiser and shot at him, then they took off down a 'road' to get away and found themselves going East in the West bound lanes of I-70. Then they hit another vehicle head-on and were killed. There was at least one jack-knifed 18 wheeler and many more vehicles scattered along the highway from trying to miss them. The last news report we heard said there was 'no news yet', about the condition of anyone else at the scene. I'm so glad that we were not 'just a few minutes earlier' down the road toward home, or we might have been more closely involved in the event! "Thank you God!!! "
The rest of the ride home was fairly un-eventful except for the snow that was falling from about St. Charles[sometimes pretty hard, sometimes not so much] until Booneville. Kansas City might get as much as 4 inches, and St. Louis expects about an inch. We may get some, or maybe not. It was just 'misting' when we got home.
Life can get pretty exciting at times!

6 comments:

Mandy said...

Never a dull moment! I will let you know if I can figure out what you can do to "fix" your blog.

Abby said...

Oh that is scary! Isn't it nice to see God watching out for us like that in every day events!

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you didn't leave Karl any earlier! I'm glad you got to spend a wonderful day with him! I'm very jealous not only for getting to see him, but also by the snow. I want some too! i just doesn't feel quite like Christmas yet with 50 degree weather. :O)

Lori said...

God was watching over you, that's for sure. I'm glad you had a nice visit with Karl.

Anonymous said...

I have never figured out why some people think they can get through in lanes that no one else can go through...I guess they are special! It was an interesting experience, tho' and it was on the news here in Sedalia this morning!

Shelbi said...

If Steve had been there, he'd have been outside, probably on the roof of our car, screaming at the people driving in the wrong lane, flashing his badge, and using a lot of colorful language at the idiots trying to go around!

This is one reason I'm so glad we didn't end up in St. Louis, though. I hope the officer was okay? Hearing stories like that hit home for me now, and my first concern is always the officer's safety. Knowing a little bit about exactly what they do out there, and knowing that my husband's brothers are out there risking their lives every day is sobering, to say the least.

May God be merciful and keep them safe out there. And thank God He was watching out for you guys!

Was anyone else hurt?