Here is something you do not see every day. In May of 2004 Katie and I were returning to SLO from visiting her grandmother at Leisure World in Laguna Woods. The 101 was closed north of Santa Barbara due to a fire, so we were taking the 5 to 41/46 and across into Paso and back to home.

Traffic started to slow and we could see emergency vehicle lights up ahead. We were in the number one lane as we got closer to the accident. There was a CHP officer was walking down the shoulder in the middle of the freeway. We noticed a helicopter circling overhead. As the officer got close to me, he stepped into the road with his hand up. All the lanes stopped and a few minutes later the car was shaking. The helicopter could not have been more than 20 or 30 feet above us as it came to rest on the freeway in front of us. They loaded a patient from the accident and took off.