{"id":20901,"date":"2018-12-14T10:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=20901"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:24:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:24:41","slug":"turning-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2018\/12\/turning-point.html","title":{"rendered":"Turning Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI wasn\u2019t supposed to make it off that mountain. The doctors told me I should have died there that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not something you normally hear on the other end of the telephone. But I was talking with GL Woods, and he isn\u2019t an everyday kind of guy. Never was. Certainly isn\u2019t anymore. Not since that day in West Virginia in 2004 when he was involved in a motocross crash that paralyzed him from the neck down.<\/p>\n

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While that sinks in, let\u2019s step back in time\u2026GL is one of us. He\u2019s a car guy. When he was just 13 years old, he was hanging around a local body shop, soaking up the sights, sounds and smells. By the time he was 15, he\u2019d already bought his first car: a 1956 Chevy hardtop. He told me, \u201cI\u2019ve always been hooked on nostalgia. The \u201950s, \u201960s, \u201970s.\u201d He turned 16 on a Monday. Tuesday, he got his license. Friday, he was hit by a drunk driver and the \u201956 was destroyed. Can you imagine how that must have felt for a kid totally absorbed by the automobile? But like we tend to do in our younger years, GL rebounded quickly. He got himself a \u201971 El Camino to drive in high school and set his sights on learning to build cars.<\/p>\n

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At the same time, motocross caught his attention. Big speed, big jumps and big cojones to do it right. His number plate, ironically, was 911. Who knew that number would come back to play such a big part in his life? He\u2019d ride hard, break bones, heal up and get right back on the machine.<\/p>\n

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As time moved on, the rest of GL\u2019s life was going well: a beautiful wife and family, professional success that allowed him to own the things he\u2019d always wanted to have. His garage is currently filled with all kinds of muscle cars and hot rods. He even has his own paint booth. As our phone call went on, we found ourselves talking about cars we\u2019ve had and the ones that got away. GL had a frame off restored factory dual quad \u201957 Chevy and ran across a guy who wanted to give him $45,000 for it. At the time, that seemed like a LOT of cash…of course, that\u2019s a $150,000 car now! Then, there was the \u201959 Coupe de Ville, what a legend at only $3,500! And a Lemon Twist 440 Superbird for only $20,000. Yes, please! Except, he didn\u2019t buy either of them because, at the time, he was moving and…you know how it goes.<\/p>\n

I thanked him for the Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> reference. He laughed and quickly pointed out that he\u2019d love to own a \u2019Cuda and his daily driver is a Chrysler 300 with a HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>!<\/p>\n

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Back to 2004, and the crash that left GL laying in the dirt, his wrecked motorcycle next to his broken body. Unable to move, friends rushed to get help and he says, \u201cYou know what? All I could think of was playing with my kids.\u201d The official prognosis was bleak: paralyzed from the neck down. It seemed like all of his fast living had finally caught up with him. \u201cI had the same injury that Christopher Reeve had when he fell off his horse. Reeve had died on Monday, my crash was on Friday.\u201d Between the hospital and rehabilitation, GL was laid up for months. But then one day, he got movement in his fingers. That led to movement in his hand. His arm. Things were slowly getting better. It was a year\u2019s worth of work to get back. When he finally made it home, he went to his garage…it was exactly as he had left it before his accident. \u201cIt was a time capsule,\u201d he says. \u201cI needed to figure out how to get back in there and be part of that hobby again.\u201d So he kept working at it. Day in, day out. GL walks with a limp these days, but he did what the doctors said he never would: walk…and have a second chance.<\/p>\n