Practice and Qualifying Birthday - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

So after our day at the racetrack we took advantage of being so close to one of my favorite restaurants and went to Old Spaghetti Factory for a fabulous birthday dinner. Not only is the food delicious and the service superb, but you get an entire meal including salad, bread, drink and desert for about $10 per person. My personal recommendation - Mizithra ala Homer with Brown Butter (rich goat cheese sauteed in brown butter over spaghetti noodles, yum-yum!).
Here is a picture of ALL of us outside the restaurant after dinner. It is my favorite picture of the entire day:



We then hopped over to Ontario Mills Mall to get some kitchen supplies from Bed, Bath and Beyond and some lotions for me from Bath and Body Works, and let the kids (the men included) check out the Lego Store, which is super cool. Seriously, could this day get any better?

With all of us utterly exhausted, the drivers all grabbed coffee at the local gas station before hitting the freeway only to find traffic stopped due an accident on the side of the road. No sooner had the traffic picked up when we saw a little old model Honda CRV blow past us going at least 85-90 miles an hour. He was being impatient and weaving in out of traffic to pass cars. Joe had barely uttered the comment about how he was going to cause an accident when the CRV started to fishtail, hitting another vehicle and sending it across lanes, smashing into the center divider and then rolling before ending up on its side in the middle of the freeway. We went an entire day at the speedway without seeing a crash and then witness one right in front of us on the way home! At one point I wasn't sure if any of the vehicles involved might end up hitting us but we were lucky and managed to roll passed the scene as flames sprung up from the car on its side.

Everything after that was pretty much a blur. I remember Joe throwing our car into park and yelling for me to call 911 as he ran out of the car. I remember telling him not to do anything stupid and him reminding me that their was someone in that car. As I dialed 911, Joe, Scottie and Andres (both of whom were driving behind us at the time of the accident) as well as a couple other good Samaritans yelled to the woman in the car. Joe kicked the flames away from her vehicle and luckily someone had a fire extinguisher to put out the remaining flames. Miraculously the lady was able to get out of her vehicle on her own and seemed to have only suffered minor scrapes and cuts. Unfortunately, the man who caused the accident and his passenger, ran from their vehicle into a field beside the freeway and were nowhere to be found. Their car had no license plates. A third vehicle and driver sustained minimal damage and no injuries. I couldn't believe everyone pretty much walked away from such a horrific crash but more over, I was so proud of Joe for not even thinking twice before attempting to help. Actually, I was proud of all three of them - Joe, Scottie and Andres. They will claim they didn't end up doing much to help but I really don't think that is the point. Their willingness to help is what matters.

I was glad that everyone was pretty much okay from the accident and although I doubt it, I hope they find the people responsible for causing it. It was a very surreal way to end such a wonderful day. I think we all drove the rest of the way home in a daze (not to mention at least 10 mph slower than we would have normally). So there you have it folks. My birthday - the good, the bad and the ugly. But that's not all. Even after such an eventful day, we still had a party to come as well.