Who actually gets in a train wreck?!?

Well, I do, apparently. I just thought I'd take a few minutes to tell you about my Spring Break trip. It definitely turned out to be, um, different than I expected. My mom and I were planning on taking Hayden on the Heartland Flyer train down to Fort Worth. My dad was going to drive down the next morning and join us. Ryan was in NYC and we just thought it would be fun to hang out, stay, eat and shop in a new area for a few days. So Friday morning Hayden, Mom and I boarded the train. We were thoroughly enjoying it when, just south of Gainsville, TX, we had a huge collision. We actually hit a semi truck/tanker that crossed the tracks right in front of us. People that were standing at the time were thrown to the floor and multiple people were injured....including my mom! My mom had a bad car accident when I was in high school were she was rear ended at 50 mph and she had bad whiplash. I guess that left her with a weaker neck because a few minutes after the crash she started having super painful muscle spasms in her next and back and pretty soon she couldn't even move without major pain. (Just so you know, we are all laughing about this now!) Ambulances came on the scene and my mom was loaded on to one in a neck brace. Hayden and I rode up front and they took us to the Gainsville hospital. This may have been a blessing in disguise because I have no idea what time they finally sent buses to take the rest of the passengers on down to Ft. Worth. We had already been sitting there for two hours after the crash before the ambulance came. Crews were all over the place because we ruptured the train's gas tank on impact and there was deisel everywhere. Eventually they wanted to drag the train back to Gainesville and get buses to take people on from there but I know it was probably a long time before that happened. Mom eventually got released from the hospital with a diagnosis of whiplash and prescriptions for a painkiller and a muscle relaxer. Now for the next problem...my dad was in Stillwater at the time of the crash and Ryan was in New York. We were going to be stuck at the Gainsville hospital until my dad could get down there to get us. There was nothing to eat there and it was dinnertime and Hayden, who was such an angel through this whole thing (no sarcasm, I really mean it!), was getting restless, understandably. One of the sweet, sweet nurses drove us in her car over to the town's Walmart. It was there that we ate dinner and killed time for the next three hours until my dad could get there. Dad eventually arrived and we drove the rest of the way into Fort Worth and finally checked in to our hotel 13 hours after we started our trip! The drama went on with my whiplash starting to kick in and my poor dad, already sick with a head cold, getting a stomach bug while we were down there. It was such a relief to finally get home last night! I have to say though, it makes for a good story! It was much more excitment than we would have had on Spring Break! I find it funny that I am the actress for the Heartland Flyer commercials but the first time I actually ride it anywhere, we crash! Something to tell my grandchildren someday!