Retreats and Miracles

I am home from the annual retreat up in Coeur d’Alene. It was wonderful as always. We were missing three of our precious members, and we always feel the absence when someone isn’t there. Still, it was an amazing time of laughter and prayer. Not all of us are writing these days. God has called some to other endeavors. But we brainstormed a couple of novels and one non-fiction book, plus prayed some problems right straight through to victory.

The book I had us brainstorm is the third in The British Are Coming series, To Capture a Mountain Man. I’m already having lots of fun telling the story of Isaiah and Lady Amanda and can’t wait to share it with you in early 2025.

This was my third straight year to drive to the retreat, and normally, with a couple of stops for gas and to stretch and use the bathroom, most years it’s taken me around seven and a half hours to make the trip. Doesn’t feel too terribly long as long as I have a good book to listen to. But my trip home was different this year, and I want to share.

It’s about 80 miles from the retreat location to Moscow, Idaho. I stopped to get gas at pumps outside a grocery store, so no bathroom facility. That was okay. I didn’t need to go yet (I skip coffee when on a road trip). But as I continued on through Moscow, just before I was about to leave the town, a little voice said, Stop and use the restroom. I didn’t feel the need, but I stopped anyway.

Before long I was back in the car and I paused to make a note in my travel diary of the time I was leaving Moscow. Then I took off. I wasn’t too far out of town when an ambulance went rushing by me. Not long after, I joined a line of backed up vehicles. I’m guessing I was about the 15th one in line. I could tell the accident was just around a bend and rise in the road because of the people standing and looking. More official vehicles came. A helicopter came. We waited and waited. The ambulance finally returned to Moscow. No lights or siren which made me think that was a bad sign. Some cars pulled out of line and went back to Moscow but I wasn’t sure what other route was available to me, so I kept waiting, always thinking the road would open in another ten minutes. Just another ten minutes. A lightning storm moved through, followed by lots of rain, and still we sat. Finally, after an hour and a half, an Idaho State Police truck came along, and the officer spoke to people who had their windows down. I made sure mine was down. He told me it would be at least another hour and if I had another route I should take it (and I learned from him what that route was). So I followed his advice.

I was, perhaps, an hour into my new route when I crested a hill to find a northbound vehicle coming toward me in my lane. I hit the brakes and swerved as much as I could to the side, giving the driver time to correct his trajectory and get back in the middle uphill lane. I really didn’t have time to be scared, but I was thankful he hadn’t hit me. Also thankful the guy behind me didn’t rear-end my car as he was a bit close.

I rolled into Boise ten hours and 20 minutes after I left the home of my friend. I was tired but good … and remarkably free of back pain.

Two days later, I thought to look up the accident that caused the delay south of Moscow (the road was blocked another two hours after I turned around). It was a head-on collision, the driver coming north swerving over into the southbound lane. And according to the time of the accident on the ISP report, it occurred right about the time I would have been in that exact southbound spot if I hadn’t stopped to use the restroom. I had already known I would have been near it, but a chill went through me when I read the time of the accident and could see the truth because of the timed entry I made in my travel diary. Not to mention how closely it mirrored the near-miss I’d had later that morning (northbound vehicle swerving into the southbound lane).

Trust me. I have been thanking God often for causing me to listen to the small voice that said, Stop and use the restroom, even when I didn’t need to. I’ve been thanking Him for keeping me safe the second time as well. His eye is on the sparrow … and on the Robin too.

~robin