Suing the State of Maine Today

So, Billy wants to sue the state of Maine today. I don't know how he wants to go about doing that, but he has an entirely good reason as to why. Here's the story and a drawing farther down the page that I made in Microsoft Paint which you can follow along with.

***

It was Thursday night, last night. Billy came home from work early in the evening so we could go out to dinner. We took his 1999 green Toyota Corolla that he's selling. My car had too much mess in it and Billy's Mustang was in Derry getting it's striping put back on.

We started in the direction of Portsmouth, but we weren't sure where we wanted to eat yet. When we got to the Portsmouth circle I think Billy had an idea of where he wanted to go for dinner. A man in a sedan cut us off to get into the left lane which we had been getting into. Billy stayed in the right lane to avoid getting hit. He tried getting over, but couldn't, and stayed in the right lane going toward Maine.

Billy saw a sign stating "95", apparently a highway he wanted to get back to. So he kept going straight. When we got to 95, it was 95 North instead of South. We needed South. By now Billy is mad at the situation. We drive and drive, hoping for the nearest exit. A "Welcome to Maine" sign stating "The Way Life Should Be" makes Billy scoff, as he has disliked the state ever since he's been there twice with me to visit my Grandparents in Buckfield. A Rest Stop area flies by, then a Weigh Station, and finally an exit: Exit 7: The Yorks/Ogunquit, Maine.

I'd seen the exit many times on my way to my Grandparents house, but never before had I gotten off at that exit. We drove up the off ramp and came to an unlit area of road. We took a left at the fork, knowing the on ramp for 95 South would be there instead of to the right. Before we know it, we're on the wrong side of the road and a car coming from up of the hill is traveling towards us. I gasp and Billy curses as he turns and drives over the short median to get to the right side of the road. Out of the corner of my right eye I see the beginning of the median, splitting the two sides of road apart; hard to see with no light, and an unlit arrow sign pointing to the right...We're not going fast only about 20 miles per hour, as Billy didn't want to hurt the car he was currently selling as it traversed over the median. We'd only just gotten over the median and a mess of construction equipment is barring our way for the turning lane for 95 South. We turn, with only our headlights guiding us, and drive past some overturned and uselessly scattered, orange cones. I gasp again as we come to a low, gravel dip in the road, followed by an even lower metal grate. I mean they were low and though we were going slow I knew it wouldn't be good. I close my eyes and wince as the car jolted through the dips, crying out as it's underside scrapes the ground and it's tires take the brunt of the impact.

Billy curses again and says, "Wow, let's get out of this crap state," or something like that.

We turn left to get onto the on ramp and as I hear strange thudding noises I say, "But is the car okay?" with my heart still pounding and my breathing out of whack.

Billy gets silent as we listen to two of the tires, both on the passenger side of the car, thud against the ground. He stops at the bottom of the on ramp and we get out to inspect the tires. Sure enough, the passenger side front and rear tires are flat. The passenger side front rim is bent. The underside of the car is scraped, but hard to tell with only our cell phone lights.

Not wanting to spend a good amount of money on a tow, Billy calls his Mom back in Hampton. There was a donut-tire in the back of the Corolla, but that wouldn't help with two flat tires. He explains the situation to his Mom and tells her she has to go out to my car in the front lot and get my donut out of my trunk and bring it to us. I have a Chevrolet Prizm, it's the same thing as a Toyota Corolla. Billy quickly changes his mind and tells her he will just call AAA, as it would take her too long to get there. We were almost 40 minutes away from home, it would take her over 40 to get there and then 40 back, with two donut-tires!

We get back inside, Billy calls his boss and AAA, and we wait for a flatbed to arrive. As we wait we get out to inspect the Corolla one more time. Billy lets out a sound of disbelief as he looks at his side of the car.

"What?" I ask, fearing the worse.

"All four tires!" Billy states with a laugh, seeming to want to lighten up the situation. I couldn't believe all four tires were blown out! The flatbed arrives 10 minutes later as Billy gets a call back from Walter, his boss and close friend. He shares the story with him as the flatbed driver loads the Corolla onto the ramp.

After about 40 minutes, $57.00 plus a really good tip, we get back home... with no dinner. I entirely felt like it was my fault since I had been the one that wanted to go out to dinner in the first place. It was one of those things that you kept thinking about after like, "What if?" What if I hadn't taken X amount of time to get ready, if we had already known where we wanted to eat, if that guy hadn't cut us off at the circle. Small things like that, that change the outcome of everything.

All in all, everything's okay. Billy is a mechanic and that's why he had the car in the first place. He buys and sells cars alongside being a mechanic. He can easily get 4 new tires, rims, and hubcaps, which were also lost, for the Corolla. At least we weren't in my car, as I have work today. And at least we were NOT in the Mustang, that would have been devastating! I mean it would have looked cooler for an action movie being a 2007 Mustang flying over a median and going air born after hitting two dips in the road instead of a dark green Toyota Corolla crawling over a median and wrecking itself in two dips would have. But really, the Mustang's low profile tires, 20-inch chrome American Racing rims, and chin spoiler wouldn't have made it through that all that well. But, as Billy said to his Mom when we got home:

"So, I'm suing the state of Maine tomorrow,".

The construction site was not lit, the road was not lit, there was no work area ahead signs; visible for someone coming off the exit, there was no dip, bump, or detour signs anywhere, there was construction site equipment in the road, and there were cones, but they were overturned and scattered around. That's why Billy wants to sue the state of Maine. I'd go up there and take pictures, but it's kind of a ways away. At least we're okay. :-]

I remember the first three things I was thinking after we bashed through the dips.

1) Wow, for anyone who saw that it must've looked really cool

and 2) Seriously, how do the GTA guys do it? I mean we just went through two low construction dips and blew out four tires and it was alarming. How do Nico or CJ fly over sidewalks, run people over, and slam into buildings with out like, flipping out? Haha.

and 3) Okay, "Welcome to Maine: The Way Life Should Be? Complete with dangerous construction sites that murder out-of-staters, four flat tires, and death-defying stunts held in 4-cylinder, family sedan, metal deathtraps!??!

Sincerely,

Jenn (musclecarlover)

P.S.: We live in Hampton, N.H. so both Massachusetts and Maine are within minutes of us in some areas.