Exploration 6

When I was about ten years old my parents had taken me to a hill to go sled riding with some friends, which turned into an experience I will never forget. It was a frigid January afternoon and all of us had multiple layers on to keep us comfortable in these conditions, at the top of the hill I stood with my puffy dark green jacket on and eagerly joined my friends in the sled to go down the hill. As you could imagine this repetitive process occurred for quite some time until people gradually left to go home and my parents and I were the last ones there. As we were leaving the sun had just went down without much notice because of the big, puffy snowflakes blowing in the wind and making it hard to see the hill we had just left and was not more than fifty yards from out car. After we got into the car I was taking off my favorite white hat and my numerous layers when I realized it was so cold out that my hands were still cold enough to send a shock to my system when I put them on my cheeks. After we had warmed up and gotten settled in the car my dad drove the car out of the park, up a steep windy hill and stopped at the rustling, snow-covered stop sign. To the left was a big bridge to cross over a river that passed through the park we had just left and to the right I could see nothing but snowflakes violently blowing around until faint yellow headlights would slowly peer out of the white abyss. While we were sitting at the stop sign I remember the radio saying “The roads are getting worse and worse by the minute, use caution if out on roads and try to stay off the roads if possible”. My mom was very tense at this point due to being caught off guard by this storm and worrying about other drivers on the road, despite my father’s attempts at easing her nerves about the drive.  Once my dad was sure that the road was safe to pull into, we turned left very slowly but enough to make my Gameboy slide out of the seat next to me, onto the floor. We continued to accelerate very slowly on the road and then I remember some commotion between my parents that caused me to look up front and the rear view mirror caught my attention because of the headlights approaching very quickly. The next thing I remember is getting knocked forward very quickly and feeling my seatbelt press tightly up against my chest, my Gameboy flying into my dad’s seat and after that I blacked out for about a minute. After I woke up, all three of us were in shock and slowly trying to grasp what just happened, figure out of any of us were hurt, and to call 911. About ten minutes later I was still somewhat disoriented and remember a faint siren and flashing lights approach our white dodge neon, the EMT’s cut my dad’s yellow jacket off of him and take him away in the ambulance to treat him for whiplash and check for any other injuries.