Road Trip

This weekend we've been talking about road trips.  While we were reminiscing, I remembered one particularly memorable road trip...it was 18 years ago, so my memory may be a little fuzzy.  But here's what I recollect:

I was ten.  We lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil that year.  Over Christmas break, we took a road trip to Rio De Janeiro with some other American friends.  I remember we had two cars full of people.  I was in the second car, full of ladies with my mom as the driver.  We were on a 4-lane highway, and all of a sudden our windshield broke.  Now I know what you're thinking...."It got a crack in it."  Nope.  It shattered.  Glass everywhere.  Windshield nowhere.  A windshield has never been more broken in all of history (I checked).  It was actually a really scary moment.  A super loud noise as it shattered, then glass flying at us, and then WIND.  Lots and lots of wind.

My mom immediately pulled over onto the shoulder.  I remember saying, "Honk your horn! Honk your horn!" to let my dad, brother, and others in the first car know that we were stopped (this was 1993, before cell phones).  Nope.  They were long gone.

So there we were, on the side of a remote highway in the countryside somewhere between Sao Paulo and Rio, five American women covered in shards of glass.  We all kinda just sat in shock for a minute.

Then we saw him.  A homeless guy.  Don't know where he came from.  Pretty rough-looking.  Probably the definition of the word "bum."  His head appeared in the space where the windshield used to be.  He rattled off something in Portuguese.  We knew a little Portuguese, but didn't really understand what he was saying.  Still just sat there in shock.  And (not gonna lie) a little fear about what this guy was gonna do.

Then we saw HIM.  Another guy.  Don't know where he came from.  But he had the word "Jesus" on his t-shirt.  Not even kidding.  J.E.S.U.S.  We figured anyone who wakes up and decides to put on a Jesus t-shirt is probably a decent guy.  I don't remember if he spoke any English or not, but somehow we were able to communicate enough for him to help us knock the remaining glass out of the windshield, around the edges where it was still hanging on.  We got out of the car and tried to brush off most of the glass.  At some point the homeless guy disappeared. The other car we were traveling with finally realized that we were stopped, so they came back and found us.  It wasn't until then that I saw the car that the "Jesus" man came from.  Apparently he had seen us pull over and just decided to stop and see if everything was okay.  Once our other car pulled up, we thanked him and he went on his way.

We decided to drive to the next town and find someplace to get a new windshield.  I ended up in the other car with my brother and some others, and they let all grown-ups ride in the car sans windshield.  My mom didn't really want to drive anymore, so one of our friends took over.  And then it started to rain.  Of course.  They held towels up to try to keep as dry as possible, but it wasn't very effective.  Especially since we had to drive like 20 mph all the way to the next town.  It was pretty hilarious watching five adults trying to stay dry as the rain was beating down on their faces!  Literally.  I'm pretty sure the lady who was driving was wearing sunglasses to keep the rain out of her eyes.  And at one point  (out of habit) she turned on the windshield wipers.  They reached into the car like giant claws.  Eeek!

We got a new windshield, and the rest of our trip was pretty uneventful (well, as uneventful as you can get in Rio De Janeiro).  I honestly don't remember very much about our visit in Rio.  But I sure do remember the trip.