The day before we flew back home to Ketchikan, Nate and Quent went skiing at Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood, Alaska. They had a little trouble getting out of the neighborhood as Nate's truck got stuck in a ditch, but they ended up catching a ride with Nate's friend Luke. Annie and I stayed at their place and talked for hours and hours. It was so fun getting to know her more! We had plans of meeting the guys for dinner so we got into Annie's car because Nate advised us not to take the truck so we didn't end up in the ditch as well. So off we went on our way to Girdwood. About halfway we stopped at an interesection and Annie thought she heard a noise. She wanted to get out and check to see if we had a flat. No flat, so we kept on going. After a little while we started to hear this noise. And then it got louder and louder. Annie was staying calm, so I thought if she was calm and not concerned, that I would stay calm, too. As we are driving down this beautiful highway that curves around the base of mountains, coasting the ocean, she tells me that it's a really dangerous road and that the year before there were so many deaths because of people passing on the curves. It was getting darker. We could see the resort lit up on the mountain ahead of us. And the noise got louder and louder. Finally we pulled over in a parking lot to see if we could see anything. We couldn't see anything (because it was dark and because we didn't really know what we were looking for), so we piled back into the car and continued down the road. At one point I asked Annie if she would slow down because I was getting nervous. We were *almost* to Girdwood and she called Nate on his cell. But he didn't answer. So I called Quent. He answered and I told him that we are having car trouble and that it sounds like we are in a helicopter (it was crazy!). Later he told me he was very concerned because he could hear the sound loud and clear through the phone. We said we were minutes away. So we turned down a road toward Girdwood. Everything looked familiar because that's where their wedding took place. We pulled into a parking lot where we think the guys might be, but we didn't see them. The helicopter sound was almost embarrassing! We continued down the road, turned onto the street that would lead us to the resort hotel (going about 20 mph), when all of a sudden the car made this awful sound. Annie stopped the car. And then she pulled forward a little bit more and it made an even more awful sound. She was like, "Should I try going forward again?" I was like, "No, it's dead." So we got out and I look down on the ground next to the tire and there's this bolt that looked like it was cut. We were maybe 200-500 yards away from the hotel. We start walking down the icy road and people kept stopping to ask if we needed help. I don't like walking on ice, so I was walking real slow. Annie was faster than me and I told her to just go ahead. I ended up walking through 3 feet of snow (sinking down of course with each step). When I reached the hotel she had contacted the guys and they knew where we were. Luke was still with them so Nate picked up Annie in Luke's truck and went to check out their car that was sitting in the road with the hazards on. Turns out that all the tire studs (lug nuts) had broken off one by one as we drove to Girdwood. The tire was no longer attached to the car!! We were so thankful unto God that we were still alive. It could've been really bad! Luke drove Nate back to their home to get Annie's truck. Quent, Annie, and I had dinner together and waited for Nate to come back. After dinner we walked over to the bake shop...
I think Quent was tired.
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