Jan 23-25, 2004: Melissa and I took a trip to Columbus, Ohio for OhayoCon. Technically described as a "Japanese Culture Convention," it mainly revolves around Sentai, which is the word used to refer to shows/movies that involve giant monsters, costumed fighting and the sort (Power Rangers, Ultraman). My original intention of going there was to meet an online friend (whom I met through a MUD known as GlooM [which is down at the moment]), and give him a few Anime tapes (namely Record of Lodoss OAV and TV, and the first two Slayers TV seasons). Melissa wanted to go, since this would be her first Anime-related Convention, plus a weekend to spend with me. So we went. Summary: OhayoCon was a blast. Well, I'll skip the unnecessary details and move right ahead to the important part: The trip back. For those who remember that weekend, it was snowing. It started snowing around the time we were 100 or so miles from Columbus. It wasn't too bad, just a lot of defrosting. During OhayoCon, it got a little worse. Driving wasn't too fun, but there weren't any problems (I bet I freaked out whoever was in that car that I almost slid onto at the Goodale/Olentangy River intersection). The roads were cleared out better on the highways on our trip back (we just needed to take I-70 all the way back home). We made it through Ohio just fine.
At some gas station near the Indiana/Ohio border, we filled up and switched drivers. As usual, we took the safer route and stayed in the slow lane. Also, I think it's best to describe that, at this point, the highway is four lanes (two in each direction) with just a wide ditch as the division. A black pick-up truck a little ways ahead of us was in the fast lane, just moving into the slow lane (perhaps to pass someone up ... I wasn't quite paying attention at the time). He started fishtailing a bit (where the back end swerves, but the front end stays in one place). Due to the road conditions, his fishtailing got worse and he ended up angled about 45 degrees North (imagine a car on the highway and turn it 45 degrees to the right). It also, somehow, wound up back in the fast lane. Because it was fishtailing, it couldn't accelerate and began to naturally slow down a bit (meaning that we were approaching it). We attempted to slowly move into the shoulder to avoid him ... but he chose that moment to floor the gas in the hopes of leaving the highway ... and slammed into the back, driver's side of my van. Again, due to the poor road conditions, and that my van is front wheel drive, we ended up fishtailing, pointing across the fast lane. The good news is that we slid off I-70 Westbound before we hit anyone else ... the bad news is that we kept sliding and came to a stop on I-70 Eastbound in the slow lane. Just in time for a semi truck to hit the front, passenger side of the van at about 50 mph. Somewhere around here, the passenger side front window shattered (not sure where all the pieces went). Sounds bad, I know ... but after spinning around for a while and winding up in the fast lane, another semi hit the rear driver's side going at least 60 mph. The good part? That second hit pushed us into the ditch, away from traffic. The bad part? It also helped to destroy the back door, the rear driver's side and also managed to rip off the left side door. In the end, as you can see from the pictures, we sustained massive amounts of damage. In fact, when the claims adjustor writes a report about the damage to a vehicle, they have an overhead picture and are supposed to mark damaged areas in red. The entire van was filled in red. The driver of the black pick-up checked to see if we were okay. Eventually, the semi truck drivers also came by, and one was luckily an EMT (Emergency Medical Team, or something like that). Around that time, the driver of the black pick-up chose that moment to take off. I believe the estimated value of repair cost exceeded $10,000 (the van was only worth $2,600, I think). When I was able to stumble out of the van (Melissa needed a neck brace and had to be helped slowly out of the van by the medic-type-people), I saw that the suitcases (which had been in the far back) were on the left side of the van where the sliding door used to be. So, they either flew up to the middle and out, or they went through the now-missing far rear, driver's side window.	You'd think it looks okay at first glance ... but where's the window in the door? Or the side door just behind that? The side door's inside the van. Those colored patches are from the Skittles we had. Yes, this is what happens when a semi truck hits you going in excess of 60 mph. My favorite pic. That back door is supposed to fold up, not down.
Yes, that's the tire down there. That's the axle under the tire ... which is where the side of the van *should* be.
Another bad part? A friend of mine, who had attended OhayoCon last year, and who wanted to go again this year, called me up the night before we left to see if he could get a ride. If he had come with us, he would've sat in the middle seats ... which were pretty much destroyed, had at least one suitcase passed through it, and multiple shards of glass sent from the back to the front. When I checked the bag my laptop was in, it had tons of tinted glass shards in it. The only broken tinted glass was from the back door, and the far rear, driver's side window. The laptop bag was between the two front seats (so that glass probably caused the gash in Melissa's head). So, in the end, I lost my van (and I still had another 26 months of payments to make on it), I had a few abrasions to my head and a bruised rib, my glasses were bent far out of place, Melissa suffered a huge bruise on her knee (which later migrated down her entire leg), a burn from the seatbelt across her neck, multiple bruised ribs, and a 3/4" gash in the back of her head. We also lost Melissa's pillow, and her disposable camera that had a good collection of CosPlays on it. Both of our suitcases were destroyed. Hers was literally torn apart. Since mine was hard plastic, it cracked. And, one of the worst, was that my laptop ... which has the entire series of Clone High, DWI (Dance With Intensity, DDR for the computer), a few eps of Naruto, the Naruto Manga up to Volume 19, the complete Video Girl Ai Manga, the complete DNA^2 Manga, Berserk Manga up to Volume 15, a good 500 MP3s, the two Mooninite Episodes from Aqua Team Hunger Force, plus a bunch of crap I don't recall just now ... was pretty much killed. Luckily, the harddrive was intact and the insurance covered the repair/replacement cost (just got it back last night, in fact). Final Decision: After all that (and being set back a good $10,000, with another 48 months of payments to make), we're still definitely going back next year. This time, if it's still snowing, we'll stay an extra day. Our handles are Gammler and MissaKitti. Look for us at OhayoCon 2005! -[Gammler]-