Article October 31, 2005 Issue

angels on highway 24

By Lona Ingwerson

OUR INTENT on that sunny Colorado afternoon was to head for Pike's Peak, where we had made arrangements to take the cog train (the world's highest cog railroad) to the 14,110–foot summit. But we got waylaid ... and that's where the story begins.

We were driving toward Colorado Springs on Highway 24, a two-lane road, when we approached a blind curve. My husband, Don, cried out, "That car is headed straight for us in our lane!" He quickly swerved our car as far to the right as he could, in order to avoid a head-on collision. There was a steep drop-off on each side of the road and only about a three-foot shoulder, but he used what he had. Nevertheless, the oncoming car hit us at top speed and threw our car over both lanes of traffic, through a guard rail, and down a steep slope on the opposite side of the road.

Maybe that's where the real story begins. Maybe you've heard the expression "In the world, but not of it." I guess that's the best explanation I can give for how that moment felt to me. It did happen, but it was as though it didn't. We simply went from a position on the highway, right side up, through many twists and turns, to a position at the bottom of the mountain upside down.