Thursday, March 18, 2010

Quite a lunch break!

Catherine and I got back from Houston this morning after I was an official at the judging contest. To celebrate our return, Luann (my mother-in-law) called and said she would like to take us to Mach's for lunch. We went to lunch and had a wonderful lunch with Luann. Catherine's grandpa Sloan even stopped in and had lunch with us. On our way home, I wanted to see the progress that had been made on a house that is being built down the road from us. Well this is not really a house it is more like a La Quinta! So we drove by the house and started home. This is when it started to get interesting. We were driving along and noticed that a horse was running along the side of the road. Then we noticed that there was an older gentleman trying to get the horse back in. We told him that we would help him try to get the horse back in. I got out of the car and stood in the middle of the road, hoping to turn the horse when Luann and Catherine turned it back towards the gate. The horse quickly turned towards me and started running at full speed. I start to wave my arms and say "HO! HO! STOP YOU STUPID HORSE!" The horse gets within five feet of me and then rares up and tries to paw/claw me with his front feet. When this happens I immediately think that I have no business penning horses and know nothing about it. After I see my life flash before my eyes, the horse runs out into a field and starts to run away. The plot continues.... So the older man gets back in his car and takes out after the horse. He is going down a grass lane that divides two fields. He is going all out chasing this horse, he is flying down the road. This is when it happens. We were about to abandon the penning operation and head back to the house. All of a sudden I see the truck the man is driving FLIP OVER!!!!!! I mash on the gas pedal and we start towards the scene of the accident. Catherine is calling 911 and I have no clue what to expect when we get to the truck. We get to the truck and Luann and I start to run towards the truck yelling to see if we can get a response from the driver. We finally get to the truck and the driver is laying on the roof of the flipped over truck. Luckily he was conscious and responsive. The 911 dispatcher is asking us all of these questions and trying to get the EMS and sheriff to our location. We see a sheriff’s can fly by and we are telling the dispatcher to tell the cop to stop and turn around. But the cop keeps on going and turns on another road and then another. We can see him and are trying to tell the dispatcher to tell him to stop and turn around. For some reason he keeps getting farther and farther away. So Catherine and I jump in her mom’s car and spin our tires taking out after this policeman. Luann’s car has been named Hooptie, since the tires could fall off at any moment. So I was thinking that the Expedition was going to fall apart as I was chasing the police car. (How weird, normally it is the other way around!) So we finally get him to stop and follow us back to ground zero where Luann and the wrecked truck were. As we come back to the turnoff to the grass lane, the fire department and ambulance were coming down the road. They got in line behind us and followed us to the wreck.

What had happened was in the heat of the moment in chasing the horse the man driving missed the 12 foot culvert that he drove his truck off and as the truck went over the culvert it flipped on top of itself. Luckily the driver was not injured and actually once the emergency personnel got there he climbed out of the truck and wanted to see where his horse was.

So that was our crazy lunch. The horse is still running loose and was last seen by the Iago Federated Church.

Here are a few pictures we took with our phones of our front row seats.



Nurse Luann keeping the driver calm and awake. She had to pull up her old skills of working in a hospital.



The Boling and Wharton Fire Departments bracing the truck so it did not continue to roll.




There were quite a few individuals that showed up to the scene. Even a few on-lookers that stopped along the road.

4 comments:

  1. See this is what you all get for going to Mach's without me!

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  2. This sounds like the things that always happen to me. Glad I am not the only one. Good to hear the older man is okay and it made for a fabulous, fun story! Wish I could have heard you tell it in person!

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  3. Wow! My lunch with co-workers doesn't even compare, Luke & Catherine! I'm so glad everyone is alright.

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  4. Randa, this does sound like something that would happen to you. I do not think that the driver was on his cell phone though!

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