My Own Survival Situation

June 10th, 2007

Mr. Thuot woke me up around six o’clock in the morning. When I got to the camp he asked me to do a round and get everyone to come back to the basecamp. He was doing his final briefing before everyone went through all the camps and talked about the pros and cons of each one. While that was going on Joe and I stuck around the main fire and watched it dwindle out as we do not throw new wood on the fire after that point. I sat around playing with the fire at that point.

When everyone came back Mr. Thuot was handing everyone back their car keys and cell phones. He also gave out some OJ and donuts. Everyone ate with happiness. I noticed one guy there with what appeared to be a wedding band on his left ring finger. I wanted to ask if he was married but I never did. Now I am curious if he was married and a senior in High School.

When we left, we carpooled to Ken’s Truck Town and Mr. Thuot did his final send off there. I decided that because I was so close to the old camping spot, I thought I would go check it out. I drove up there. It seemed like things went further back than I remember them in the past.

I was cruising along going higher and higher up. I still recognized many of the landmarks as I went along. It has been nearly a dozen years since my last trip up there. I was up near where the camp sites should have been, but I could only see places where large boulders were placed in what were once roads. I came to realize they have shut down those camping spaces from people. That really sucked to see.

I decided to keep going up to the top of the road where it ended and you could see the river flowing at a very high point and it was like it was in a waterfall type state. I am not clear exactly how far away I was when I kept hearing a metallic-type sound. I also was having worries in the pit of my stomach. No one knew were I was going and I had no cell phone coverage. I figured I could be entering my own little survival situation.

So finally I needed to take a leak and I wanted to see what the sound was that I kept hearing. I got out and found my left read tire was halfway off the wheel. It was shredded up badly and my wheel was heavily damaged as well. Not a good situation for me. I drove up the road some more in order to find a spot where I could turn around. Also something wide enough I could be off the road way and where my spare would not easily roll over the cliff edge and leave me stranded.

It took some time to get the tire changed, but I got it done. I made my way down the hill, but I went around five miles per hour the whole way down the rougher part to make sure I did not damage another tire as then I would really be stuck up there.

I got out of the woods about three hours after going inside. I figured that would be a short hour long trip. I was wrong.

When I got home I got a call from Don from the Maulers. I am going to play with them during the ECC at the end of the month. I am really looking forward to doing that.

I went in the house and helped with replacing the vents that Bill pulled down so he could vacuum them. I then finally got a shower to get the smell of smoke and mud off of me. I spent the rest of the day trying to stay awake and watching some TV, doing some stuff on the computer. I wanted to go to bed late so I would not get on a totally messed up schedule for me.


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