In one week, we had a golf banquet, a boating accident, a family reunion, a farewell and then another Family reunion. The golf banquet get its own blog post.
As for the boating accident...Bill and his dad, Bruce, and Uncle Jim from Kentucky borrowed a drift boat from a friend and took off on the South Fork to do some fishing. They planned on being on the river all day and docking at Byington. They missed the ramp, this was where the truck was parked, they were able to get to the edge and Bruce got out so he could drive the truck to the next boat dock down by Heise...that was the plan anyway! Bill and Jim stayed in the boat. They ended up getting caught up in some logs and branches. They called Bruce and he flagged a motor boat down and they went to see if they could find them. In the meantime, Bill and Jim made a plan to get of the branches, it wasn't a good plan apparently because they ended up dumping the boat. They were not wearing life jackets and Jim got sucked under the boat as it rolled. Bill was able to pull him out and as he was gasping he said "grab life jackets". Bill was able to grab the kids jacket and get it around Jims neck and he was able to get a seat cushion and clamp it under his arm while holding on to his uncle and trying to hold the rope of the boat. (Boy Scouting teaches stay with the boat...this may be true in a lake...not in a swift moving river.) They ended up losing everything...coolers, cameras, wallets, phones, and fishing gear. Bills phone was in a ziplock with his wallet and he heard it ringing as it floated by and there wasn't anything he could do about it. They floated down the river probably close to a mile and half to two miles and 45 min. It was impossible to swim and they were yelling help. Some fisherman on the bank had called 911 and search and rescue was on its way. By the time they got to the Heise bridge they were exhaused and Bill knew there was another diversion dam just down stream. He was able to get stopped in a rock bank in the middle but was hard pressed to hold on. Search and Rescue got there about the same time the the jet boat Bruce had flagged down had caught up with them. They got them in the boat and out of the water. Those men were there just in time to save their lives. 1/2 mile more down river and they would have been dead. As for me on my end Bill said he'd be back around 5 or 6 and his dad and Jim were heading back to their campground. At 8, just when I was ready to head out the door for Zumba, I saw his dad pull in and Bill and Jim get out in Search and Rescue blankets. I made light of it and said "wow you dumped the boat!?!" Bill was in shock and Bruce told me the story. Such a scary event. I am grateful to search and rescue and to my Heavenly Father for sparing these special men in my life!
The next day we went to Utah to Bills mom and dad's house for a family reunion and visited with Bills dads side of the family. Raeda and Booth were there and so were Stan and Mary along with a few of their kids. It was a nice visit, but it was pretty much focused on the events of the preceding day!
We came home and packed for our week long family reunion then headed back to Utah for Darcie's Farewell. Chuck and Diane had just moved to a new house and Chuck had carved bears into some dead trees at his old house. He cut them down and needed help putting them in his yard. He used the man power of the day.
Here's Darcie posing with the bears!
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