Hi everyone,
I had a wonderful trip to DL with Dylan (my 10 yr old nephew). We left last Thurs. and had Thurs. evening, Fri., Sat., Sun. and Mon. at the park. We closed it every night except Sunday; that night we left early, at 11:30 p.m!
When we woke up Tues. morning we were both REALLY tired, needless to say. We checked out at 11, which was a struggle since we woke up at 10, had breakfast and started back to AZ around 1 p.m. Even after eating and drinking some coffee I felt really fatigued, but figured once I got going I'd perk up.
Well, I didn't perk up; in fact, after about 90 min. (a little east of Beaumont for those of you who know the area) I was feeling really sleepy. I thought about just pulling over on the freeway and sleeping for a little bit, but I was afraid it would worry Dylan, so I kept driving, thinking I would pull off at the next exit I saw that had a gas station or burger place. That's the last thing I remember thinking. The next thing I knew, literally, was that I opened my eyes and found myself bearing down on what I thought was a semi. I slammed on my brakes, but hit the back of the vehicle (which it turned out was an old truck pulling a sand rail or something like that, going about 55 mph--I was going 65 or 70, not over the speed limit). The air bags went off, I veered to the right, went through a barbed wire fence, down an 8 ft. embankment and ended up on a local highway that ran parallel to the freeway. Miraculously the car didn't roll; my front tires didn't even blow out, but the front end of my car was pretty demolished and the roof and passenger side were scraped and dented from the fence post and wire. Also miraculously (and I don't use that word lightly), neither of us was hurt. Dylan didn't even have a scrape on him and all I suffered was a burn on the back of my right hand from the chemical that deploys the airbag.
To summarize the rest of the story, my car is in a wrecking yard in Beaumont; I'll hear in a few days whether it is considered totaled or not. We went to the hospital in Palm Springs because Dylan some stomach pain. We both had x-rays and checked out OK. My sister drove out immediately, got there about 9:30. We spent the night at a hotel, went to the wrecking yard today and cleaned out my car and drove back to Scottsdale. I'm getting a rental car tomorrow and am counting my blessings that neither one of us, especially Dylan, was hurt.
Moral of the story: learn from my mistake! My gut was telling me to stop and I didn't do it. I can't believe how fast it all happened. I have no recollection of dozing--I don't know exactly what did happen, but I jeopardized not only my own life, but the life of my nephew. I could never have forgiven myself if something had happened to him. I know we both were divinely protected. We were wearing our seat belts and I was driving a good car (Honda Accord). We're both very sore, and emotionally shaken, but physically fine. I'm so glad to be back and be safe.
I'm many pages behind and don't know when or if I'll be able to catch up, but send my love to everyone.
I pretend like I'm doing something every time he comes in 
