ALL THE WORLD IS MY STAGE

I was trundling up Missouri highway 40 (or I-64 for you non-Missourians), with my sister and her friend/roommate. We were heading towards Kirksville, MO where I was going to drop them off at Truman State University, then continue heading up to Carleton through Des Moines. We weren't even outside the metro area of St. Louis yet, and I had just cracked open my Cherry Coke Zero, my mother's favorite 'healthy' flavor of soda.

As I was popping open the can and starting to bring it towards my mouth, the car started rocking. Much like F(x)=x*sin(x), the rocking started out with quick shifts from left to right, but soon spiraled out of control. The steering wheel twisted beneath my hands trying to maintain control, but it was no use. By this time I had taken my foot off the gas, had momentarily experimented with the break pedal, but remembered that in the case of blow-outs, the smartest thing to do is just decelerate.

But decelerating just wasn't coming quickly enough. We swerved to the right and the cement guard rail (we were on the viaduct over Woods Mill Road) came fully into view. I thought we were going to hit, but as quickly as it slid into view, it spun out again, and now we were looking at three lanes of oncoming traffic. We had turned 180 degrees.

That was the last thing I could focus on. We spun another two times, but we moved so quickly it just made me a little dizzy, and the we stopped. Except for the blown out rear tire (Alicia, my sister's friend who was sitting right above the tire, said she just felt the car drop half a foot and knew something was wrong) and the fact that I was now facing stopped traffic instead going in the correct direction, everything was the same. I was still within the middle lane and we didn't hit anything.

A police officer raced to us and blocked off all three lanes just long enough for me to turn the car around and limp it to the shoulder. That back tire made a lot of noise. It sounded like an empty tin can was supporting the entire back of the car, which doesn't seem too far off of a simile.

So. That's about the most exciting thing to happen to me in a car.