We left Chris Walla's house at 1 PM on Sunday and started the 29 hour drive from Portland, OR to Edwardsville, IL to come home from recording. At about 5:15 on 80 East near Beaver Crossing, NE our back right tire exploded. Aaron was driving, Norm was in the front seat, and Griffin and I were laying down on the bench seats. I woke up when the tire blew. We were going 80 in a 75, totally with the flow of traffic, and at that speed Aaron had a hard time controlling the vehicle after the blow-out.
We drove across the median towards oncoming traffic, and as soon as we hit the westbound part of the highway the van flipped over. We did a complete flip and luckily landed right back on our wheels and drove into the grass on the other side of the highway. 5 of the 9 windows broke, and the top is dented to shit. Our van is completely totaled, and will be living in a junkyard in York, NE until it eventually turns into a tightly compacted box.
THIS SUCKS, BUT IT COULD BE A LOT WORSE AND HERE IS WHY:
-Nobody was hurt. NOBODY. A few cuts here and there and a little scraping but really nothing. For an 80 mile-per-hour big van flipping over, that's amazing. When we eventually stopped, everybody was pretty much where they were in the van before the blowout.
-The folks that were behind us when we blew out followed us to make sure we were okay and informed us that we were just a few feet from an oncoming truck when we flipped over the other lane.
-All of our equipment is fine. Our van is insured. It's just stuff, who gives a shit.
-We were near Lincoln, NE where we have friends. Our pal Kim and Al, the father of Darren Keen (aka. The Show is the Rainbow) came and picked us up and our equipment. My dad will be coming out here to take us home.
I can't believe that we survived this like we did. I was asleep until the tire blew, and i didn't have time to react. It's all pretty surreal and we're all pretty shaken and our bodies are starting to get sore and pissed off at us. We will be home tomorrow, and life will resume as normally as it can.
Griffin took some pretty great pictures of the van, and we'll put them up soon so you can see the carnage.
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10 comments:
Holy fuck guys!
Glad to hear you are all in one piece.
oh my god
i'm so glad to hear that you are all ok
please come back safely to us
-mike
i am still freaking out about this.
i'm going to make you cookies. see you tomorrow.
-L
oh my god.
be safe.
I'm so, so glad you guys are okay. That is one hell of a crash. Oh my God, that's frightening.
I am so, so glad you're all okay. Damn.
it just doesn't end for you guys, does it? thank god you're all ok though. scary.
glad you're all ok. van crashes = not the funny.
now go write a song about it.
*dances*
Man, you guys can't catch a break with the vans. And, while it sucks unbelievably about your ride, I'm relieved to hear that you're all ok.
Good thing you have no bass player, it seems they never live through things like that. Glad you are all alright.
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