So Very Glad I Wasn't Hungover This Morning

Day 40


The cap'n and I decided to drive only half way home yesterday and we stopped off for the night in Red River, NM a little ski village, not far from Taos. I've spent a lot of time in Red River while I was growing up and later when my kids were younger but it has probably been 15 years since I've been there. The last time we went the cap'n and I took my kids for a long weekend.. Yesterday we tried to remember where we stayed but we couldn't. It was a vacation, which meant a lot of drinking. I remember drinking beer and playing shuffleboard all afternoon one day and drinking and eating and throwing peanut shells on the floor at Texas Reds but the rest is just an alcoholic blur.

Last night we went out for a nice dinner at Timbers Restaurant/Bar. We sat in the dining area, the cap'n had one glass of wine and I had hot tea, we could hear the crowd in the bar watching the ballgame and drinking. A year ago, hell, a few months ago I would have been in there chugging down JD and hollerin' with the crowd. I probably would have made a few new best friends and I would have felt like crap this morning.

But I felt great this morning and we headed north towards home. We hadn't gone very far when we crested a hill and came upon a wreck. It must have just happened because there weren't any police or emergency vehicles there yet. There were two cars alongside the road and one of them looked pretty bashed in on one side, the other didn't seem to have any noticeable damage. There were people out of the cars on their cell phones so we went on by. We got a little ways and decided to turn back to see if they needed any help, we were out in the middle of nowhere and who knows? When we got back to the accident scene we were able to see another car, this one had ended up in the ravine on the side of the road, there were people walking around on the outside of it but we could still see people in the vehicle and a bundle lying on the ground beside it. My stomach flipped over, after 30 years as an OR nurse I still worry that they're going to bring something in that I can't handle. It hasn't happened yet but I still looked warily at that bundle.

As we got closer to the vehicle we informed the people that we were medical personnel. "Thank God," they cried. We bent down near the bundle, it was an elderly lady, she had blood coming out of her nose and she was waving around an arm that had an obvious broken wrist but she was alert. She said her chest hurt when she breathed but she was moving good air and she didn't have that elephant stepping on her chest feeling, she probably had broken ribs, we assured her she would be alright. I undid her pants and unhooked her bra so she could breathe easier One man was pinned in the front seat with a probably broken leg but otherwise okay. Thank God the car didn't catch on fire. The other passengers were bruised and bloodied and dazed, the walking wounded we call them, later they will feel that "load of bricks" that hit them but right now they were numb. Man, that adrenalin is a powerful drug.

The fire truck and emergency service truck soon showed up, I'm sure they were all volunteers as they usually are in those rural areas, we gave them the information we had and we said good-bye and got back on the road.


We didn't save any lives and they would have been okay until EMS showed up but I hope we gave them some comfort. I'm so glad I wasn't hungover. I probably would have urged the cap'n to keep driving.

Today I’m just out there doing my best to enjoy being home and keeping the fire stoked.