"HEY SHEP"

[LowPoint]

Hello Shep,

Although I don't know you personally, as I have never actually met you, I would like to say that (as a fellow-metal detectorist) I am glad to hear that you are alright following your accident.  Your description of the accident brings to mind an incident that happened to me when I was in my mid-30's.  I had been up in Flagstaff, Az. "Honke-Tonk'n" at the museum club, and after having way-too-much fun dancing, and drinking a-way-too much "cervesa," and shots of tequila I, (in whatever logical mind that I had left) decided to make the drive back to Prescott, Az. thru the switchbacks of Sedona (shorter route (I guess)).  I was cruising (at least) 60 mph (or so) down hill, and definitely feeling no pain when I headed out at about 2 Am in the morning.  I was doing fine (at least I thought) for the first 20-30 miles of flat land driving, But by the time I started getting into the area of the switchbacks my eyes got heavy; I got groggy, and didn't realize that I was nodding-off into "La-La-Land".  Considering that it was winter, I think having the heater cranked up at full speed (and heat) may have contributed to my situation as well.  The next thing I know I am hearing rocks, and dirt, and sticks hitting up against my pickup wheel wells, and I'm bouncing around inside (due to rough ground conditions), which has "awoken" me to the reality that I am about to go screaming off of the left hand bank of the highway, and down a good hundred foot sheer drop into a canyon.  That's about when I saw that huge pine tree coming up '"very-quick" in my windshield.  This scared the crap out of me enough to where my natural instinct to avert collision, and my quick response kicked in enough to where I managed to yank the steering wheel to the extreme right, as I was going into a right hand turn.  I hit the breaks, skid up along side of  a guard rail, and stopped,.. and surprisingly had no damage to my (relatively-new) pickup.  After I got out,"collected myself", and recouped from the near heart attack that I must have had, I got a flashlight and saw that the spot where I would have gone off of the cliff had no guard rail; just a huge pine tree that I would have slammed thru on my way down the canyon.  "God" was definitely looking after me that night!!!  So, now that I was "Awake", I turned off the heater, rolled all of my windows down, slowed my driving speed to the speed limit, cranked-up my music as loud as the speakers would bear, and sang-aloud every song that came on all the way home, just to stay awake.  Once the liquor wore off, I like-to froze, but I got home intact.  Shep, Glad to hear that you made it through it.  There is always a lesson to be learned in every experience.  Gary