John is in the car driving, with David pushing from the driver's side and a Passerbyer and Jon J pushing from the trunk side.

YEAH!!! With all those guys teamwork, they got my car unstuck!!

I had a wonderful time with The James Family in the mountains this weekend. I took like 150 photos of all the different events we did - so it will take me some time to go through them - but I thought being it is fresh in my mind (plus I don't have to rethink about it again either), I will tell you of the little excitement we had on the way home from the mountains today.

The excitement occurred on the turn off toward Hwy 1 - I was turning and next thing I knew I hit black ice - of course I swore and only one to yell - first instinct for me. I just felt the car to slide to the left and a sense of panic for me set in as on the left side was a steep embankment going towards the Trans Canada Hwy. I had turned the steering wheel to the right to try to correct the slide. God was looking after us - the car started to go right but what saved us from going over the embankment was a thick snowbank. We stopped - I knew I was stuck good - I had said out loud - now what do I do? I was so stuck that the left driver wheel wasn't even touching the ground!! My subconscious must have known that something was going to happen - as before I left on Friday, I made sure I had put my shovel in the trunk. Boy did that ever come in handy today!! Jon and David James and John Paterson along with a couple of strangers finally got my car out of the snowbank. My hands were shaking obviously with shock setting in as you realize that the scenario could have been a lot worst - fatal really as the car would have surrell flipped/rolled as it went down the embankment. Just like the garage situation - I knew I had to get back into the driver's seat and continue our trek home. I was good until we hit the city roads (ice rinks) as the back of my car fish-taled - I don't know if Char or Amanda heard me - but I said at one point to Jon J that I might have to pull over as the fish-taling was scaring me (never did - just took my time and didn't really speak to anyone.) We finally got to Char's place and I was able to sit down and relax (thanks for the tea and shortbread Andy).

So what did I learn from today - I have great friends!! Winter in the mountains - definitely have a shovel and probably some sort of rope or chain to help pull you out of snowbanks. Also heard that kitty litter is good to have to give your tires something to grip onto if you are on black ice. And God kept me and my friends safe today too.