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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend

Our friends invited us and a few other people to go up to Green River, Utah to camp and do some river rafting over Memorial Day Weekend.
We knew it was supposed to rain, but had full confidence in Chris who said, "It never rains in Green River..." :) Ryan's parents have a camping trailer that we borrowed. It was sweeeeet. Ryan's family took it camping when Ryan was a little boy 25 years ago!!!
The group of 3 trucks, 2 camping trailers, one flatbed trailer, a van, and a Subaru left around 11 'o' clock on Saturday morning. Since we were hauling the heaviest trailer we fell behind the group about the time we reached Utah Valley. Ryan likes to drive fast- so it was a little frustrating to him.

Jayden did pretty well on the drive ... ...until we hit Spanish Fork.
Then he was done with the car... too bad we had 3 more hours to go.

We finally get to Green River. It's pouring rain and Im crammed in the back seat of Ryan's truck with a cooler under my legs trying to keep Jayden entertained. To get to the campsite we had to go up a "dirt road" a ways. This is was happens to dirt roads when it rains: And that wasn't the worst of it.

The farther we got up the road the more narrow, and muddy, and up hill the road became. We were starting to slide a lot... at one point the road was so narrow we had a rock wall to our right and a cliff to the river on our left- just a couple feet to our left... with NO guard rails.

SCARY

Luckily I was on the right side of the truck and I couldn't see the river to my left very well. If I had been sitting on the left side I probably would have peed my pants. I knew if the trailer slid at all to the left - that we were done for.
I had my hand on Jayden's seat belt ready to unsnap him as soon as we fell into the river...
At the narrowest part of the road Chris (the beloved friend who planned this outing- and the guy driving the truck that was hauling the trailer full of rafts just in front of us) came over to our truck- covered in mud and told us the last thing Ryan wanted to hear: We had to go back.
Apparently there was a truck stuck ahead of us blocking the road. Basically these guys had to go backwards hauling 16 ft trailers down a narrow, muddy, winding road. And P.S. The truck Chris and Tara were driving refused to go in 4-wheel drive. Perfect timing!!!

So at that point my nerves had completely taken over and I decided it would be better for me to carry Jayden in the pouring rain and walk in the mud than to be in the truck that seemed to be destined to fall in the river (That's how I saw it anyway). Unfortunately through all the bumps driving up the dirt road the camping trailer door had permanently bolted shut- and I had no way to get a jacket or blanket for Jayden or myself. Thankfully Tara (love you Tara!!) let us borrow her sweatshirt.
We followed the truck heading backwards in the mud while I tried to figure out how long we would be able to survive living off Ryan's social security since he doesn't have Life Insurance.
... Luckily, Chris remembered the Ryan didn't have life insurance and helped Ryan back the truck down the muddy road. ;)

(After the muddy walk.)
Since the truck Chris was driving went out of four wheel drive... and Im not sure on all the details here... they had to abandon the trailer on the muddy road and come back for it later on Ryan's truck.. Im not sure how they pulled that one off. You'll have to wait for Tara's blog on the weekend.

Anyway- here are some photo highlights and videos: THE GUYS TALKING ABOUT THE SITUATION IN THE POURING RAIN... THIS IS AFTER WE ARRIVED AT A SAFE POINT TO TURN AROUND JAYDEN WAS BORED SO WE LET HIM TAKE THE WHEEL EVERYONE HAS FINALLY TURNED AROUND AND WE'RE READY TO GO FIND A CAMPSITE... WITH HOOKUPS. ....To be continued....

2 comments:

Stephenson and Katie said...

Love this story, you tell it so well... I can't wait to read the rest! I still feel horrible for you guys, BUT, soon you'll be able to look at it as a funny adventure, right?

Amy said...

I can't believe we missed this - we may as well be excommunicated from the ward... *sigh*

I can't wait to hear the rest of it! :)