Monday, February 14th

Happy Valentine’s Day
Up early for a flight to Cancun. Woo!
Went through the full body scan at O’Hare. Sorry to all of you who hate it. I love it. I have had to go through pat downs and wandings for years because of my artificial knees. Now, I just stand with my hands on my head for a few seconds and I’m good to go. Yea!

We got a different car at the rental company this time. So long beater. Hello VW. Even the neighbors said we were classing up the neighborhood. Yuck. Yuck.

Pete (he calls himself my nagrivator since he navigates and aggravates at the same time) guided me through Cancun to Costco, where we spent a small fortune. Then we found room in the car for more stuff.

Neighbors invited us to go out to dinner and we realized we had only eaten a donut and ½ of a fun sized candy bar all day and it was after 6pm. Kenny and Annie rode with us and took us to their favorite restaurant. Oh my gosh, the steak was awesome. On the way home, we came the closest we have ever been to a fatal accident that we have ever been in.

Front seat - Pete in passenger seat and me driving.
Back seat - Kenny and Annie
We are driving 80 km/hr (limit is between 80 and 100 at this point).
I am in the left lane (southbound) and am coming up to a bus in the right lane. (I will be turning left in about 2 miles)
I see a car very very very rapidly approaching me from the rear. The guy is absolutely flying. Before I can even think about whether to slow down and pull over, he overtakes me and pulls around me to the right and as he attempts to go in front of me, he loses control and goes sideways across my lane no more than 2 feet in front of my car. Honestly, this is really no exaggeration. I brake and he continues across the raised median, then spins around in the northbound lanes going northbound.
It all happened so fast that I only had time to react. None of us know how in the world we missed hitting him broadside. There is no doubt in all of our minds that he would have died that night and we probably would have as well.
I thank my Dad for teaching me how to be a really good driver (even though I do tend to speed).
Kenny and Annie thanked me for saving their lives. I definitely have their respect for my driving ability and calm demeanor in a crisis.
I thank God and I also know we are four of the luckiest people in the world.
None of the 4 of us know how we managed to get out of this one alive.
Scary.

We had to go another 2 miles to turn around to get to our street. You have to go a mile past our entrance, then turn around and go back a mile. We’re sure the guy in the car was okay. His car? Don’t know. In Mexico, if you are involved in an accident, usually both drivers are taken to jail while the police sort out who was at fault. So, we just continued on our way home and we won’t report this one to the police. I will drive down the road tomorrow and see if there are car parts and/or a car on the side of the road.

Everyone is safe, though maybe a bit shaken.