I am not too familiar with the Buena Vista off ramp which Siri asked me to take. At 6:50ish in the morning, with the rain falling briskly and a husky white Tundra in my right side mirror I stepped on the pedal once the phone told me I had about half a mile to get off. When I thought I had enough room to merge onto the lane my hands began to gently turn the wheel and my little car’s momentum began to shift.
Then without warning we all felt the hard punch as the front wheels slammed into a pocket of water I had not seen. Next, I felt through my feet how the right front tire lost connection to the ground which set us careening into space and a wall of unaware k-rails on the side of the car where my daughter and wife rested. Some instinct made my forearms twitch and I moved my wheel attempting to correct course. The car had ideas of its own though and our back end started to swing left onto the lane I had just tried to leave. Right before I took my foot off the break and I relaxed my grip off the wheel I did a quick glance at my rear view mirror. For a long fraction of a second I spotted my son’s frightened face and I noted his cry. The car slowed some, steadied course and I was finally able to regain control.
Finally resettled I turned on my blinker and sheepishly took the off ramp, turned on the avenue and headed to the airport where my wife needed to be dropped off for an early morning flight.
My heart is still feeling the effect of those few seconds of freeway action.