BREAKING NEWS: Everyone Is Fine

OK Friends, Family and Faithful Readers...
Before we get into this entry, please note the subject - everyone is fine. That being said, we had a much more exciting day than we thought we were going to have on Tuesday...which originally was JUST a driving day. We were scheduled for about 400 miles, from Burlington to Philadelphia (where we are staying overnight before our show in Camden on Wednesday morning.) Everything went smashingly...and I am HAPPY to report that Vermont, even in the winter, is breathtaking! Beautiful! And it had a layer of fresh snow all over it...the lakes were frozen...the trees were covered with snow...MAN. We had a good drive through Vermont.

Sadly, these pictures just don't do the drive through Vermont justice. IT. WAS. AMAZING.

The 'excitement' of the day was tonight, and only lasted a brief moment. Long about 7:15pm EST, we were heading down I-95 South, just about a 1/2 mile from our exit in Philly to head to our hotel. I had just finished thinking to myself that it was a pretty boring day, as far as blog-worthy events go...but I was ok with that. 5 minutes later, the 'boring blog' theory changed COMPLETELY!

The calm before the storm....

At about 7:20pm, still EST, with Elisa driving and myself in the passenger seat, we noticed a car (come to find out it's a small white Honda Civic) cutting across traffic heading towards us, in the far right hand lane...seemingly minding our own business. The Civic comes close to us, swerves BACK across the traffic, and then swerves AGAIN and ends up heading straight for us. This time, the car SLAMS into our driver side of the van...pushing US into the guard rail on the edge of the freeway....which we proceeded to ride for about 5-7 yards. We came to a stop - and took a quick inventory of everyone...and found out that everyone was fine...save the shock of it all, and a couple of bumps and bruises here and there. And although it initially appeared that the car that hit us was going to drive off, the driver actually ended up pulling over about 100 yards ahead of us.
Once we had checked everyone and settled a bit, we started into taking care of what each of us could. Chris hopped out and ran down to check on the woman driving the Civic. We noticed that the large window in the back passenger side of the van had broken and fell out - so everyone started checking their possessions. Elisa hopped on the phone immediately to call in the accident. (I would like to be able to report on the speed of it all...but everything was a blur...so who knows...it seemed like they were pretty quick to respond.) We soon found out that although the window had broken out, and seemingly all of our luggage (or larges amounts of it) COULD have been lost...it appeared that only 2 things were thrown out the window: Jill's glasses and a copy of the DVD 'Hustle and Flow'. And those 2 items were found sitting on the side of the freeway together, almost WAITING for us to find them!

L: The broken window. R: Jill illustrates just how BROKEN it was.

Eric on the phone...through the window....

L: More window. R: Jill, through the window, shows us her lost-but-now-found glasses....

The van had some dents on both sides (one from the Civic -one from the guard rail), and we quickly found that although it could still drive (as we drove off the freeway exit with the police), it made a loud, metal-crunching noise when we had to make LEFT turns! Unfortunately, the path we took after that was composed of nothing BUT left turns. OH well.

Driver Side dings and scrapes.

Passenger side guard-rail-enduced dings.

The Honda Civic dings...getting towed away.

Elisa talks things over with Officer Von Helpenstein.

The end of the evening was spent heading over to Hahnemann Hospital here in Philly so that a few members of our group could get checked out and make sure everything was OK. (As time of print, they are all returned to the hotel and well...), unloading the van, watching it get towed away, loading ALL of the contents of the van in 4 different taxi cabs and heading to the hotel and getting everything sorted out (that last part was actually quite comical...but it helped to get the van cleaned out....)

Looking at our collection of STUFF, outfront of the Hahnemann Hospital...waiting for taxis. Um here's a game: Find the lone can of soup. WHAT THE CRAP?

When things happen like this, you can't help but stop and take inventory of life, too. The first thing you realize, and one of the first things I remember anyone saying in the van, is how BLESSED we are. (Jackie's first words post-impact were how very blessed we are....) We've driven a LOT of miles on this experience - and this is the first major THING we've had...and for it to end as safely and fortunately as it has is a HUGE blessing. I am sure we all have you, as our family and friends, out there praying for our safety everyday as we travel...and we appreciate the prayers and we are here to let you know that they work! We are also lucky to have a cast that is pro-active and just gets things done because we know they need to be. We are fortunate that the state of Pennsylvania committed to STRONG and STURDY guard rails when putting I-95 together. They kept us on the road and for that, we are apprecaitive. We sit back tonight and I'm sure each individually took a moment to realize how greatly blessed we are.

Post-accident, Chris and Andrew ask, "Wha' happened?" as Jackie reflects on the barrier wall...

So that's it from the road. It's great to report that we are all SAFE and WELL. We are staying in Philly a couple of extra days until we get a new van...and so it will afford me some freedom to do some Philly-exploring-and-photographing...and that has GOT to be better than a couple of days off in Bel Air, MD. (No offense to Bel Air.) If you hear from me, or your Wonka tour person, in the next day or so...just know that we're connecting because of our little shake-up and we probably just want to say HI and touch base with our friends and family. And if you don't hear from them, maybe you should reach out to THEM!

One of the VERY few human dings and scrapes. Andrew is recovering well...

But don't worry - this machine known as WONKA will roll on...because the CHILDREN demand it!

Thanks to you all for your love, prayer and support!
And as always, enjoy the pictures....
Gussy


A shot of Andrew, somewhere in Vermont today when we took a bathroom break. He had been asleep and someone put cotton on him...it was funny..