Saved by the Bubby

Yesterday evening as we drove home from Lake Charles, we got stopped on I-10 somewhere between Baytown and Houston because of a major accident on the road... Life Flight came and everything. The accident had probably just happened before we came along that stretch of the interstate... we were only about 3 or 4 cars back from the scene. All lanes were blocked off to allow Life Flight to land on the interstate and, I assume, because of all the debris. We sat in a dead stop for about 30 minutes at which some point early on we had turned the car off and just had the battery on so that Carsten could continue to watch his Baby Einstein DVD (big mistake). There was an exit ramp probably about 100 feet behind us and the cops were waving everybody off of the interstate, so there were probably only about 15 cars, including us, stuck on the interstate behind the accident. Finally, the cop starting directing those of us that were stuck behind the accident to turn around and exit the ramp to get off of the interstate. Danyel turned the key to start the engine. The car was dead.

Some tow truck drivers came over and helped Danyel push the car onto the shoulder. They asked if we were broke down. Danyel told them that we had just drained the battery and needed a jump. They told us that tow truck drivers won't jump cars because of the liability that they may blow your radio or something while jumping you. Translation: "We'd rather tow you and get paid". While this conversation was occurring, I was in the car with Carsten, who had started to scream and cry because he was afraid of all the road noise coming from the other side of the interstate - not to mention that he was tired of being in the car for the last 2 1/2 hours.

I started to panic. I tried to stay calm in order to get Carsten calm. I had to pretend that everything was under control even though we didn't know what we were going to do. If we had to get towed, we would all have to go along in the tow truck to God knows where... I had no more food for Carsten and he was starting to get hungry... and it was getting close to his bedtime. Not to mention, with the accident starting to clear, it was only a matter of time before they were going to open up the road again to traffic and cars would be speeding by at 80 mph. I was extremely worried about this, especially since it was already dark. I was going to have to walk to the gas station a top the overpass with Carsten as we waited to have the car towed. I couldn't stand with him on the open interstate or, even worse, leave him in his carseat in the car. What if someone were to not see us and slam into our car or us on the shoulder?

As my mind went a million miles a minute, Danyel was trying to call our insurance company for road side assistance, but was on hold. He seemed ruffled, but was making good decisions and staying calm... probably more so than I was. I was changing Carsten's diaper in the front seat on my lap with only the light of the sunvisor (at least the lights in the car were still working). Finally, I told Danyel to just go and ask one of the cops if they could jump us - to tell him that we had a baby in the car. He did and the cop was a complete dick (surprise, surprise)... acting as if Danyel had just asked him for his left arm. He didn't really give Danyel a straight answer whether he would do it or not, but Danyel ran to the trunk to find the cables in hopes that he could convince him. They were buried underneath all of our stuff that we had taken to Lake Charles... portable crib, bags, etc. Danyel was just throwing stuff out on to the interstate. In the meantime, the same tow truck drivers as before, pulled up to the front of our car.

They had apparently had had a change of heart. All I could think was "Thank God!" Danyel found the cable and they jumped the car. Danyel asked them what he owed them and they said, "Nothing - just get that baby home." If it wasn't for Carsten, those guys would have never done that for us... they would have insisted on towing us. It goes to show you that all "rules" can always be broken when there is a child involved. No matter how hardened, dishonest, and heartless a person seems, most turn into a softie for a baby. As we finished our drive home, I felt very grateful that the tow truck drivers had changed their minds and that my family was safely on it's way home.