Some say we were living the Dream...

Life is defined by the choices you make. Some you make and some others make. I've thought of so many ways this could have been different, what if we did not cycle our tanks and get fresh water, or we didn't get provisions for another week, what if we left the parking lot a few seconds earlier. I can play the "what if" game forever. The fact is on this particular day our world was shattered. This story is about what happened to Wanda and I that changed our lives FOREVER.

A tragic accident happened on August 22, 2023, on Route 279 in Bennington, Vermont. Leading up to it, We had just gathered provisions for another week so that we could continue boon-docking at the Air Strip in the Green Mountains of Vermont. For the past 16 months, my wife and I, along with our two cats—Handsome Boy and Pretty Girl—had been traveling across the country, covering over 22,000 miles on a five-year journey. Our lives were filled with adventure and a deep love for nature, which I captured through photography and hiking. That day, as we were driving back from getting supplies, a 39-year-old mother of two was driving impaired and erratically. Witnesses saw her driving at a high speed and weaving dangerously along the road. Suddenly, she crossed the center line and drove head-on into my Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck.

First Fill Up

Pretty Girl and Handsome Boy

Oceanfront Camping at Reach Knolls, Maine

The impact was devastating. The mother didn’t survive the crash, leaving her two children without a mother. My wife and I sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries. I had a metal rod puncture my leg and had to be extracted from the truck using the jaws of life. I had sustained other puncture wounds on my left arm including a dislocated thumb and torn skin from the column air bag being deployed. Wanda sustained bruised ribs, but otherwise was ok. Physically, we recovered fairly quickly thanks to physical therapy, but mentally it was a much tougher road. For six months, I attended therapy to work through my intense fear of driving and the anxiety of being hit by another in a head-on collision.

Head on Collision

The impact was like an explosion, not the crunching, scraping you would expect. When I awoke I saw the shattered glass in front of me and heard Wanda screaming. We could not find Handsome Boy. We realized his belly band had broken and he was hanging out the window by his neck. Unfortunately we lost our Handsome Boy a month after.

Jaws of Life

I understand why they call those tools the Jaws of Life. I could not get out of the truck, my left leg was pinned. I did not know at the time there was a metal rod jammed into it. The pressure was intense as the firemen cut and pressed on parts of the truck frame to extract me. Finally free, I stepped off and onto a waiting stretcher.

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It could of been much worse

The accident destroyed everything we had. The truck and camper—our entire investment of about $175,000—were gone. Everything we owned was inside that camper and truck. We had no backup plan, no home to go back to, and suddenly everything we had worked for seemed lost and we were homeless. People who witnessed the crash were shocked that anyone had actually survived, especially considering the condition of our truck after the impact. It felt like a moment of pure chance, fate if you will. Had the crash happened just seconds later, the impaired driver could have hit the Prius behind us carrying a mother and her three children. I truly believe our Dodge Ram stopped further tragedy that day. That alone is how I'm able to sleep at night.

In the immediate aftermath, our families were overwhelmed. The families of the survivors felt both relieved and shocked that we had made it through. The family of the woman who died was devastated by their loss. While I don’t know how the accident affected the wider community, we personally faced a complicated mix of support and setbacks. Many people reached out right away to help us, which meant a lot. But our insurance was another story. A particular line item in the policy meant we could only recover 10% of our personal losses, which was incredibly frustrating.

Camping at the Air Strip, Green Mountains, Bennington Vermont

I once thought we were victims, but realized we are Survivors

Emotionally, the accident left me with fear—fear of driving, fear of being on the road, fear of what could happen next. Despite the trauma, I found a way forward through photography and nature. I started something I called “Photo Friday,” a commitment to get out into the woods every week with my camera. Those moments helped me reconnect with life and slowly overcome my fears. Nature and photography became a lifeline that pulled me back from the darkest moments. This experience taught me some hard but necessary lessons. No matter how good you are behind the wheel, you can’t control the actions of others. Recklessness, impaired driving, those things can change your life forever. It also reminded me how precious every moment is and how important it is never to take life for granted. While I carry the weight of that tragic loss every day, I am also reminded that survival is possible. We are rebuilding our lives from the wreckage. The journey my wife and I began may have been interrupted, but we remain survivors. I hope that through sharing my story, others can see that even in the darkest moments, healing, hope, and new beginnings are possible.