strangely compelled to share with you the details of our near-death experience.

driving down some rural texas backroad at around 11pm saturday night, heading from carlsbad, new mexico, to fort stockton, texas, the last leg of the day's drive, with plans to make it to austin the following afternoon.  almost finished with an enjoyable week-long tour of the interior southwest US, hitting a bunch of national parks along the way (more on that later). 

some foreshadowing: we had already blown one tire, a few days previous, also around 11pm, next to a travel center in kingman, arizona.  that's where we met larry the auto mechanic, who spent the next 2 hours alternately chiseling and drilling the head off the anti-theft bolt that volkswagon so considerately placed on the tire, guaranteeing that neither the thieves nor the cars actual owners would ever be able to remove it.  larry ended up whaling on the back of the tire with a sledgehammer, trashing the rim so that we couldn't just get the tire patched but finally succeeding in getting the stupid bolt removed and the tire off.  so we were already one tire down and driving on the spare when this little story takes place.

it was late, we were almost in austin, we were excited, and we were tired.  i was driving, and there were no other cars around.  we were going 70 in our little jetta down a dark backcountry road.  i saw the coyote in the road just in time to swerve the wheel to the right, a little faster than i should have, and totally lost control of the car. tried to get it back by spinning the wheel the other way, which instead made the car shake around a bit and then do a sudden 180.  so now we're still going top speed, only backwards, straight down the middle of the (fortunately empty) road. 

had that thing happen, where time slows down and you get a moment to try and figure out what the hell to do.  i'm doing 70 backwards down a state highway. courtney's a little freaked but taking it well, all things considered.  applied brake pressure lightly, to start to slow us down, which sort of worked -- as the back tires were still spinning forwards even though the car was going backwards, the car swung back the rest of the way around so that we were facing front again.

i'd love to pretend i meant for that to happen, but it was sheer luck. that second 180 also slowed the car down a bit on the spin, so that once we were headed the right way i was able to pump the brakes a couple of times and bring us to a relatively sudden stop, albeit in the oncoming traffic lane.  still nobody on the road, thankfully.

we were a little shaken up but fine. the car killed itself after coming to a stop so i started the ignition back up and pulled us over to the other side of the street -- the right side -- and hopped out to check the tires. everything seemed ok. couldn't tell what happened to the coyote, but presumably it's still out there somewhere. got back in the car, drove to fort stockton, rented a motel 6 room, and despite the still-surging adrenaline, fell asleep immediately. 

woke up the next morning to discover that the back right tire had in fact sprung a leak, but it was a slow one and the tire was still half-full. couldn't find a tire repair place that was open -- "nothing open in fort stockton on christmas eve day, and no starbucks neither," we were told by the woman in the wal-mart -- so we drove the last six hours down i-10 to austin stopping every half hour or so to refill the tire at a gas station.

and now we're here in lovely, sunny texas! so don't think you can get rid of us that easily. moments like this remind me how very lucky i am to have wonderful people like all of you, my friends, in my life, however brief that life might end up being. cliched though it might be to think so after something like this happens, i love you all and appreciate whatever time i get to spend with you.

just sayin'.

merry christmas and a happy new year, everybody!