Two Sore Backs

A lot has happened since the last post. We had just met up with my Polaris friends Donna and Tom Cragg for brunch in Brampton, and were en route to Sudbury.

We had hotel room booked and were going to touch base with Polaris friends Eileen and Rick Olivier the following day – the day after their daughter’s wedding! It wasn’t a long drive, so we decided to take mostly secondary roads and enjoy the fall colours and countryside north of Brampton.

We stopped at Wasaga Beach for a quick look and then continued on without taking any blog photos. It was a really pretty drive, but, to be honest, except for a quick post after Sudbury, we thought the blog was pretty much done. We were just headed home – and we were pretty excited about it.

Half an hour after Wasaga we were on the outskirts of Midland, stopped while waiting for the car ahead to turn left, when I noticed in the side mirror a red SUV approaching quickly from behind. It didn’t seem to be slowing down fast enough, and then, crash!

As accidents go, it was pretty minor. No injuries, and damage wasn’t horrendous. I checked the driver of the SUV. Her airbags hadn’t deployed, and except for a bleeding lip from hitting her steering wheel, she seemed OK. Val called 911 just to be safe.

I wound up with a headache but I suspect it wasn’t from the collision. It was probably because my mind was racing, trying to figure out how we were going to get home before the snow started to fly in the Rockies.

It didn’t look like a write-off, but the bumper and crumple zones had done their part and I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be safely drivable any time soon.

The towing company that came for the other car suggested we take ours to Bourgeois Collision in Midland, partly because one of its sister companies is a Hyundai dealership. This was fine with our insurer.

The tow truck didn’t have room for us, so they suggested we ask the police officer for a lift. We had fun with that – check out Val in full prisoner mode.

Sincere thanks to the folks at Bourgeois. The accident had happened at 2:30p on the Friday of the Thanksgiving long weekend. By the time they were assessing whether a temporary fix was possible (it wasn’t) they were well into overtime. They also knew the bind we were in, so they promised to have a repair estimate done asap the following week.

Fortunately, there was a car rental company right next door. Unfortunately, it was the only one in town and they had no available vehicles until the following Wednesday.

Collision insurance really wasn’t designed for the situation we were in. The special travel allowance for accommodations and meals would have been mostly burned up by the time the damage estimate was complete. And we didn’t relish the idea of hanging around in Midland without a vehicle until the repair estimate was ready, so we were in a bit of a bind.

I don’t like asking for help. But at the same time, if something similar happened to a friend, I would probably be upset if I knew I could help and they didn’t ask. So I called Donna. Of course she and Tom were happy to help – they would pick us up as soon as possible!

The Craggs live nearly 3 hours south of Midland, in the Terra Cotta region near Caledon, so we decided to grab some drinks and a bite to eat at nearby Kelsey’s Roadhouse. We had just received our drinks when we got a call from Donna. Her sister’s partner Jason would be picking us up. Darn, someone else’s Friday night was getting messed up.

The restaurant was packed, the kitchen was slammed, and we had just gotten our drinks when we got another call from Donna. Jayson would be there in 30 minutes! The waitress was kind enough to sneak us a plate of fries. We quickly finished them, tossed the drinks back, settled the bill and headed back to the collision place to organize our stuff. The car was still chock-a-block with luggage and camping gear.

It turned out that Jason had been at home in Barrie, so he came to get us and bring us back to his place while Donna and Tom drove there to pick us up. In just a few hours we were at Donna and Tom’s, amazed.

When we told them how thankful we were, Tom shrugged and said “That’s what friends are for”. We were very fortunate.