Last night the Island King, the Oldest Island Boy and I went
over to Okaloosa Island so I could find a geocache for the
31 Days of AugustChallenge.
Traffic is so bad here right now and it’s really hot so
we’ve been waiting until after 10 at night to cache. Last night we left home
about 11 and went to
Okaloosa
Island. A cache is hidden
in front of the
Boardwalk and that’s the one I was after.
There were very few cars on the road, it wasn’t too hot and
I was thinking that this is the best time to cache in August.
The three of us were poking around some trees out by the
highway when we heard the sound of a car crash.
It’s hard to describe but it is a distinct sound and this
one sounded bad.
The paramedic in the Island King kicked in, we jumped in the
truck and drove the 200 yards to wreck.
He and the Oldest were out of the truck before I ever
stopped rolling. I got out and was following them when I saw them
start to run.
Oh no. My husband is old and has a bad knee and he doesn’t
run so when I saw that my heart sank.
I was still quite a ways behind him and as he and the oldest
were crossing the ditch between the sidewalk and the road I saw him fall
forward. He kept moving and then the Oldest fell forward in the same spot.
They must have tripped over something.
I was on the sidewalk and when I got about even with the
wreck I started across the grassy ditch.
One foot off the sidewalk and the ground squished under my
flip flop. The very next step landed me in knee deep water. Water which was
covering some sort of quicksand muck that sucked my shoe right off of my foot.
The next foot went down and again, I sunk and that shoe got yanked off.
Holy cow!!! Snakes live in stuff like this. I NEVER EVER
walk through knee deep water/quicksand without snake boots, waders and a
shotgun.
I never slowed down. Shoes be damned - I’m out of here. It
took about four more big steps to get out of there and onto the road and I
never looked back for my shoes.
I made it to the highway to find this
And lying on the side of the road is a woman. The Island
King is in full paramedic mode so he’s assessing her and I see the Oldest
talking to the 3 carloads of people that were behind the car when it wrecked.
They tell me that the car hit the end of the guardrail and
then spun around and ended up about 100 yards down the road. The guy driving
the car jumped out and took off running.
Two guys from the car behind them went running after the
driver. A Sheriff’s Office substation is across the street so a deputy showed
up pretty quick and told us that the guys caught the driver and another deputy
was going to pick them up.
The passenger was a woman who had gotten out of the car,
walked to the side of the road and collapsed.
She was talking on her cell phone when the Island King got
to her and didn’t appear to be hurt. She did say that her chest hurt from the
airbag deploying but her main complaint was that the driver left her.
She was crying and saying over and over again “I can’t
believe he left me.”
I felt so sorry for her but I truly hope this opens her eyes
to the fact that “he” is a scumbag and she is much better off without him.
There is also a small part of me that hopes she smacks him
upside his head with a skillet before she walks out on him.
The fire department got there and took over with the woman,
more deputies showed up and completely blocked the west bound lane, and we were
left standing there - barefooted.
Except for the Island Boy who had on tennis shoes and even
though he says the mud tried to suck them of, he got lucky and they stayed on.
At this point I’ve stepped on a million sandspurs so I send
my son back into the swamp ditch to find my shoes.
He came back pretty fast with both of my shoes in hand.
Turns out those $1 flip flops from Walmart float so they were an easy grab.
Now it was time to find the Island King’s shoes.
Turns out that when I thought he’d tripped, he’d actually
fallen into a thigh deep hole and both shoes were sucked off in the hole.
His flip flops don’t float so the Oldest went back into the
hole and started feeling around with his hands.
Which really creeped me out but he seemed ok with it.
He came up with one shoe but after looking for a while
couldn’t find the other one.
The Island King waded out and after a few minutes came up
with the other one.
I guess it’s no surprise that by now, nothing is going on
with the wreck and everyone’s attention is on us. By us I mean my husband and
son who were rooting around in the ditch, falling into deep holes and yelling
every time they did.
I wish I’d have taken a picture of them when they came out
of the ditch, soaking wet and covered in mud.
We made our way back to the truck, amazed and happy that the
people in the wreck weren’t seriously
injured, and surprised that my late night geocaching mission turned into a trek
through a quicksand swamp to a car wreck.
And guess what? When it was all over it was 12:30 meaning I
missed getting a cache for August 5.
Oh well, geocaching is supposed to be an adventure and even
though we didn’t find the cache we did have an adventure.
Labels: Done
