Harvey Dent’s Last Dance or Thank God for Guardrails

ByDavid

As someone who has experience with worse car accidents, I might have just experienced the highlight of my year. And if January 3rd is the best day of 2023, that’s all right with me.

For context, Harvey Dent is the name I gave my Honda CRV, since of course Harvey rhymes with CRV. And consecutive annual springtime rear-end collisions in 2018 and 2019 make the name seem natural. Harvey the CRV became Harvey Dent.

Furthermore, not long ago, I wrote about the importance of knowing, respecting, and sometimes busting through your guardrails. Today, I’m grateful for a particular set of very strong guardrails near Monee, Illinois.

Around 7 at night, on a day filled with rain and just about one hour to go in our 10-hour drive home from visiting our kids down south, Harvey, my beloved Honda CRV, hydroplaned on IL-57, spun many times, flew across a couple of lanes… untouched… until the guardrail and cables caught us and kept us out of a ditch. We skidded along the guardrails and sturdy cables a good long distance until we finally stopped, facing the wrong direction. Debbie and I are fine. Unhurt with maybe a little bruise or two.

Harvey looks fine.

Well, THAT half of Harvey looks great. However,

Yes, that’s the muffler embedded in the rear tire.

And so now…

Harvey Dent is now officially Two-Face.

So right now Harvey being dragged from Alsip to Naperville, wondering where his parents are. We’re fine.  We’ll see if repairs are even possible.

Now that THAT’s out of the way, let me share some gratitude.

I’m grateful for many things, including those guardrails, and some other things:

  • My wife Debbie, the other passenger, for keeping so cool and working with the EMT folks
  • Daughter Rachel, for getting us in Alsip and bringing us home
  • Police and first responders
  • Darian the tow truck driver and her amazing puppy Lola for getting us out of that ditch.
  • The truck driver that moved to block two lanes to slow traffic enough to allow Darian to make a three-point turn on a two-lane highway in her flatbed tow truck in the dark
  • And of course, our amazing family and friends for their love and support.

So how is YOUR new year starting? Any highlights?

See you tomorrow!

Lola the Tow Truck Pup