Two weeks ago, my son and I and another student who attends his college were caught in a harrowing situation. I was driving up a steep hill toward his college in the middle of a snowstorm (yes, I still question that decision). As we passed just inches away from a car that had just crashed into a roadside barrier due to the weather, I was determined to make it up a hill that seemed to go on forever. Suddenly, as the incline grew even steeper, my car would not go any further and the wheels started skidding in the freshly-fallen snow. My car was now stuck on a steep hill in the middle of a snowstorm at night. I tried to turn it around, which I did, but then two of the wheels on the passenger side got stuck in a drainage ditch at the edge of the road. I reasoned that driving half of the car in the ditch would prevent it from flying out of control down the hill, so I tried to drive the car down the hill with the wheels following along the length of the ditch. My car then got dangerously close to the car that had already crashed. I knew that I had to get myself out of that situation. I asked the boys to leave the car and stay on a safe part of the road, for if something terrible happened while I was driving, I would be the only casualty. I then pumped the gas and the car started flying up the hill in the ditch backward, but would not leave the ditch. The snow was so slippery that the rotating tires on my car were literally burning rubber.  I tried desperately several times to get the car out of the ditch, but to no avail. I then noticed yet another car speed out of control going down the hill. That car then got stuck on the opposite side of the road. The driver came out of his car and did not know what to do. As the driver, my son, and the boy all looked at me sitting in the driver’s seat of my car, I knew that it was time for me to prove myself and to somehow get out of this mess. I kept on pumping more gas and burning more rubber as I desperately turned the steering wheel with hopes of freeing the two wheels that were stuck in the ditch. Finally, through my persistence, the car freed itself from the ditch. But now, it was sitting on a steep snow-covered hill and on the verge of sliding down the incline. Being a skier, I decided that my best maneuver would be to treat my car like a pair of skis. To ski down a very steep hill, I learned to ski perpendicular to the slope while descending it in small increments. I can control the speed of descent this way. I turned the wheels so that they would be perpendicular to the hill, then I applied my foot to the gas with just enough pressure to push the car forward for a few inches as the crunching snow slowed the car down each time. I had to repeat this procedure many times and each time I did that, the car slowly slid down the hill in a zigzag pattern. Finally, I approached the other car that had crashed. With only a few inches of clearance, I was able to miraculously maneuver my car around the other vehicle. After that, I had only 100 or so more yards to get my car to the bottom of the hill and onto a flat road. I asked the boys to direct me to the bottom of the hill as I continued “skiing” in a zigzag pattern with my car. Finally, I made it to the bottom of the hill without incident and then the boys jumped back into the car.

As we drove back to the hotel together in disbelief and with high emotions after what we had just been through, multiple feelings entered my mind; feelings of relief and accomplishment knowing that my quick-witted decisions and persistence helped to avert something very bad from happening.

Over dinner that night, my teenage son told me something that became the epitome of me as a parent; “Dad, I was amazed by what you did”. Just for that one moment, at least to him, I knew that I was the coolest dad in the world.