Yesterday was one of those days I won't forget for a while. My alarm woke me up like normal at 6:15. My phone was on silent and had a software update overnight. after answering a few questions, I got a flurry of notifications and before I could finish listening to Jimmy's voicemail, he was calling again. He had been in a car accident on the way to work and was waiting at a Holiday gas station trying to reach me. I immediately felt awful that he'd been trying to reach me for over an hour. But, he wasn't hurt. I quickly gathered up the kids, loaded them in the van and navigated to the location he had sent me. I did my best to contain my emotions and drive safely as it started to mist on us. I broke down as soon as I pulled up and saw him. I was so grateful he was ok.
I tried not to interrogate him as we drove home, but I had so many questions. We got the kids ready for school and I saw the pictures for the first time as they were eating breakfast. I was in a similar accident in 2013, but my car didn't look nearly as bad as this. When he was ready to talk more, he explained that a small red car changed lanes in front of him as a much lower speed. He tried to move out of the way, but struck the back of the car at almost full speed. All of the airbags deployed as he tried to get to the shoulder. By the time the smoke cleared, all he saw of the other vehicle were some distant tail lights. Having the other car drive off just added to the confusion and stress. He called 911 and the state patrol arrived to call a tow truck and write up a report. He caught a ride to a gas station before finally getting a hold of me after a dozen tries.
After dropping the kids off, we called in the claim in to State Farm. I was surprised they were able to tell us the exact time it happened from our Drive Safe and Save sensor. I looked up our trip history later, and sure enough there it was.
Jimmy spent the morning researching vehicles since we were fairly confident it would be totaled. We wanted to be prepared when we go the number back. It was a surprise to both of us when they called back just after noon. Jimmy gave an official statement and then they forwarded us to the total loss department. Once they gave us the payout, we had a much better idea of where our car search would go. We narrowed it down to Subaru Impreza and Chevy Trax. There were a lot more of the latter available and we found one that looked like a pretty good deal, so we scheduled a test drive for that evening.
Jimmy took it out for a spin while I went and grabbed some supper for the kids. He finished up shortly after we were back and gave it rave reviews. He never test drove the van, so I left the decision up to him.
A little bit later, he was driving home with the kids while I stayed back to finalize the purchase.
The Trax is basically a mini Equinox, so a lot of the buttons were familiar. We have all the people and cargo room we need with the van, so the smaller size is a great option that still has all wheel drive. They activated our SiriusXM trial before I left and my favorite 90s jam played on my way home, so I know it's meant to be.
We did not plan to have two new vehicles in just over a year, but we should be covered for a while now.
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