Adventures with Linda and Colleen 21 April 2011

Well, Colleen and I did it again! We had another harrowing ATV adventure. We started out about 9:30 this morning for a ‘leisurely’ ride through the gorgeous AZ desert. Colleen re-acquainted me with the details of operating her ATV, and then we took off, riding into the sunset. Well not exactly the sunset, but that sounds so Western and so romantic!

We drove for several miles with Colleen in the lead and me eating her dust. The desert silt is something else, and I followed at a good distance to avoid it blowing in my face as much as possible. The desert was simply gorgeous with the stately Saguaro cacti standing as sentinels, dotting the landscape. The Ocotillo cacti were in full bloom with their brilliant scarlet blossoms waving in the breeze on their slender stalks. They really do remind one of an octopus with waving arms. I asked Colleen to stop so that I could take some photos and a video. The photos were great, but I must have NOT had it on video the whole time I was driving while carefully holding my iPhone, so I got NOTHING. Oh well.

About 5-6 miles out, my chest began to hurt like crazy. I felt like I had bands tightening around my whole chest, and I began to get scared. I had had a similar experience in bed once, which ended up with me to the ER, but it turned out to be nothing. Nevertheless, this unnerved me.

I began honking to get Colleen to stop, but she didn’t hear me. I sped up, faster and faster, honking all the time, and NADA! She raced on. I REALLY sped up and finally got close enough for her to hear the honking, and she stopped. I didn’t know she was practically deaf in one ear, and that, combined with the roar of the engines, prevented her from hearing the feeble horn of the ATV.

AFter stopping, I opened up the hood and took out my water bottle and took a big swig, and instantly the pain just stopped. We sat for a while, and I felt fine, so we headed of for home, or so we thought.

After a mile or two we came to a wash, and Colleen didn’t want to take the hill going up the other side of the wash, so she turned right, and we began following the wash, looking for another exit. Pretty soon the wash narrowed, and we began running into brambles (Palo Verde trees hanging over the wash, with LOTS of long stickers). We fought our way through several trees, trying to keep from being majorly scratched. Pretty soon Colleen reached the end of the wash where it transitioned onto the river bed. She gunned her ATV to get up the hill, but immediately got caught in the sandy bank, and could NOT get her ATV to go up the bank onto the river bottom. She spun and spun her wheels to no avail. She tried putting it int ATW, but didn’t do it quite the right way, so she just dug herself in deeper and deeper.....up to the running boards.

Fortunately, a nearby resident heard the wheels spinning. He and his wife wondered what was going on, so he grabbed his cane and began walking down the river bottom towards the sound of the spinning wheels. When he arrived on the scene and assessed the situation he gave her the bad news that she was STUCK. The good news was that he was willing to go back to his place and get help.

In the meantime, he told me to turn around and go back down the wash and find a place to come out of it. SO....back through the the Palo Verde trees I went, bending, breaking and pushing to get through all the brambles with out too much scratching. I took the first option out of the wash (one which Colleen passed because she thought it was too steep) and easily made it to the top. I pointed myself in the direction of where I THOUGHT the man might have gone, and sure enough, I came upon his house just as he and his wife were leaving on their ATV to make the rescue. I pulled up into the shade and waited. I took a little video to describe what happened and then when I heard them returning I shot Colleen’s grand entrance back onto solid land. Chuck and Jody were truly good Samaritans.

Chuck then escorted us on the road to the turnoff which would get us back home. He told us just to STAY on the road, but we soon realized that we were really heading AWAY from her house, so we opted to double back on a different path, which was the perfect choice. It took us directly to her tract and to safety. We were dusty and tired, but safe. I might add, that when we first started out, I asked Heavenly Father that we have a wonderful trip and a safe return. HE listened.

PS. Our kids will probably NEVER let their aging moms do this again. I am almost 74 and Colleen, ancient lady, is almost 79.

21 April 2011

The Perils of Linda & Colleen and the ATV’s

My good friend Linda Smith has been here since Sunday night,along with her gigantic apple computer, to spend the week with me and my gigantic apple computer! She is attempting to teach me more about the use of said computer!

Today (Thursday) we decided to take a break and spend some time on the ATV’s in the desert. We left about 9:15am with our helmets secured and sunglasses on.

Wended our way west towards the mountains. Gorgeous sunshiny day and not

too hot but VERY dusty which made Linda ride at a distance behind me so she didn’t have to eat so much of my dust.

We rode past the silver/gold mine (don’t know which) and around the back of it heading south. Looks like some people are trying to find a bit of it now that the prices are so high. We didn’t stop however. We were headed south east when Linda had a spell that she thought was a heart attack the pain was so severe. She started honking for me to stop but since my right ear is quite deaf, my helmet covered the other and the ATV was very noisy I didn’t hear her. She sped up to get closer and I at last heard her. She had a drink of water and we sat there for a bit and the pain receded. Decided we best head home.

We were about 7 or 8 miles away by then. Got to the outskirts of La Paz and needed to get over a wash. I didn’t like the looks of the steepness of the trail on the other side and decided to go down a bit to find a better slope out. There wasn’t one and so we kept going running into palo verde trees and overhang full of long thorns and sharp branches. The question was shall we keep going or back out through that mess. Then I spied a short ways ahead the riverbed that was flat and treeless! BAD CHOICE! I got good and stuck with my front wheels up on the riverbed and the back 2 spinning deeper and deeper.

I had put it in 4 wheel drive but too late. Along came Chuck walking down the riverbed with his cane! He said “This is private property” I said I am so sorry but we had wanted to cross over and head home. He told me I was hopelessly stuck and he would go get his 4 wheel to pull me out.

I sat and waited cause I was at such an angle I couldn’t get off. I imagine I could have done it if I had encountered a snake which he said later were plentiful there, YIKES, I hate snakes. Linda was advised to back out (through the brambles) and go up one of the inclines I had dismissed.

Chuck came back with his wife Jodi and a shovel. They had to dig out the sand which was flat against the bottom of the ATV and then he backed up and hooked my ATV to his. With both machines in 4 wheel drive and a good amount of gas he freed me. Hooray. I followed him back along the wash and up the incline to his yard. Linda was already there and made sure to take a picture as I came up the slope. We were so thankful for the good samaritans Chuck and Jodi. My Sunday School lesson last Sunday had the good Samaritan in it, what a coincidence! We high tailed it north to Rainbow Acres and home. Dirty and scratched and thankful for a safe return. After we eat we will do some more computer work but decided to get this little snippet of our story recorded. Now don’t you wish you had been with us? Ha ha.