A note from Marshal (friend of The Prids):
Jul 24, 2008 12:23PM


Everyone but Maile, who will be flying back to the NW today, at the towing lot with the van.

Writing this morning from a Motel 6 in Redding. Yesterday we picked up the rental van in Modesto, drove back to Fresno and brought everyone out to lovely Firebaugh, CA to retrieve their stuff from the broken shell of Blue Steel. The area around where the accident happened is pretty much a desert. Just spending a hour in the heat, trying make sense of what's left was exhausting. Beyond uncomfortable. I can only imagine what it was like for everyone to go through that terrible accident and then be laid out in the sun. Crazy.



Emergency responders and witnesses to the crash where truly stunned that everyone survived this accident. It's incredible. Driving on I-5 near where they went off the road we could see how much worse it might have been if the tire blew just a minute before or after it did. And if everyone hadn't been wearing seat belts... I don't even want to think about it.



But they WERE wearing seat belts. They had set up their van with a heavy wall between the gear and passengers, which not only kept heavy objects from flying around inside but also probably helped keep the roof from completely crushing in. Layers of chicken wire which were originally put in place to deter theft kept it all from flying out onto the highway. The gear was so well packed, most of it looks to be intact, at least from the outside. This should be an inspiration to everyone who tours. WEAR YOUR SEATBELT. PACK YOUR GEAR WELL and away from where it might dangerous to you in a crash. The Prids are by no means new to traveling around the country and that experience helped them out of this, I'm sure of it.