Saturday we got up, ate some breakfast and decided to go for a ride. We rode hard and had a lot of fun. I had forgotten how much arm work it takes to handle a four wheeler. It's been almost 2 years since I rode, but man, I was feeling it after a few hours. We crossed over this fence (random that they have a fence in the middle of freaking no where) but anyway, we get across it because Dallas and Enos were telling us about this really cool cave we needed to go see. So we finally get to this area and we have to get off our bikes and hike.
It literally was one foot in front of the other because there wasn't any more space than that.
Out of the group, only me, Nate, Dallas, Enos, Skogs and Georgia hiked to the cave. I guess I impressed Enos and Dallas because, well #1- I was the only girl willing to hike it and #2 - i was ahead of Skogs, Nate and Georgia. They kept saying that I was a "bad ass" because I hiked it. It was also cool cause they kept telling Nate how lucky he is to have a wife that will get dirty with the guys. GO ME! We get up to the opening - and OH MY GOSH!
This is Dallas crawling thru it.I was scared, but I didn't hike all that way to punk out, so I "thought skinny" and went on thru. Here are just a few more pictures of the cave and the guys. These guys are freaking awesome! They are accomodating because I'm a girl, but they don't baby me either. I love these guys.
ENOS
GEORGIA
We hiked out of the cave (it wasn't very big) and took a few pics.
There were these really cool "rifs" from water and erosion. love it!
This is one of the holes that you can look out of in the cave.
We hiked up and over to see this area that had been carved out by water and sat there for a good hour or so just chattin it up and eatin sunflower seeds.
L-R Dallas, Enos, Nate, Skogs and Georgia
DALLAS
Me and Enos (Nate said we look like a couple. We thought that was pretty funny.... and accurate by looking at the picture)
Good ol Skogs and Georgia (believe it or not, but Georgia is 37! - He is also called "Old Man" but only by Enos)
That night the girls decided we needed a "girls ride" so we went and had a BLAST! Here are a few pictures from that:
ME
Me climbing! (Just a note: I was the only girl to make it around that loop!)
Me, Cari and Cadi
Skye, Cari and Cadi
On Sunday, we woke up and kind of bummed around camp for a bit. Well, then we decided to go for a ride. Spanky had showed up (Dallas and Enos' step brother) and he was riding like a bat out of hell. He rides hard and fast all the time.
So a bunch of us head out for a ride. Homer, Skye and I were behind everybody else by a little ways. The ride was really fun, and then we come up on this hell. Jake had turned around and was motioning for me to stop. I stopped and he says the words that I never EVER want to hear again. "Nate's hurt, I'm going back for my truck." Of course he didn't go into detail because he was hurrying, and of course I'm about ready to fall off my four wheeler because I didn't know how hurt he really was. I carefully went over this hill, and there he was. Laying on the ground. I hurried and stopped. Jumped off my wheeler and ran to his side.
He was talking and moving his head around so I knew that his neck was okay. It wasn't broken. (THANK HEAVEN). So Skogs is doing his fire fighter/emt check on Nate to see if he can move his legs and feet. He tried moving and then screamed! He knew that something was wrong with his hip because he couldn't hardly move his right leg. Spanky had some IB's and a muscle relaxer so he gave those to him. We were trying to talk to him to keep him calm and keep him from going into shock. It started raining, so everyone started taking off their sweatshirts and covering him. Spanky pulled a head sock and a thermal out from his bag and wrapped his face up. You could smell them from 10 miles away they stunk so bad, but it was keeping him warm, so we dealt with the smell.
The tail pipe of his bike was completely full of dirt. His bike was about 30 feet away from him when it was all said and done. And micraculous, the bike has NO DAMAGE! (stupid thing).
Jake came back with Enos (who initially wasn't with us on the ride) and they brought a dirt bike ramp, and the couch cushions that Enos' sleeps on. They got it ready and tried very carefully to lift Nate onto this make shift backboard. I've never heard someone scream so loud in pain. Once he was on the backboard, they put tie-downs around him to keep him steady, and then loaded him into the back of Jake's truck.
Spanky rode back with me, guiding the way, and Jake very very very carefully drove the truck with Enos in the back trying to keep Nate still, and shielding Nate with his body from the rain.
I hurried back to camp and started to get the truck. Spanky thought that the truck would be too rough for Nate. Luckily Alaska and his wife Danielle were there in their 4-runner. So we hurried and pulled all their sleeping stuff out, and folded down the backseat. We were prepared to get Nate there. Then we just had to sit and wait for Jake to come in his truck. When he finally arrived we very carefully shifted Nate into the 4-runner and pulled the ramp out from under him. (This again was VERY painful for him). When we finally had him loaded we pulled away from camp and headed toward the Evanston hospital. (Evanston is about 45 minutes away from Mt. View - but first we had to drive very slowly to the main road.) Alaska had to stop and get gas because there wasn't enough to get us to the hospital, and Nate needed to pee. Well, obviously he couldn't get up and go. I tried to talk him into holding it, but he was bound and determined he was going to go so they didn't have to give him a catheter at the hospital. So what did I do being the wonderful wife I am? I bought him a gatorade bottle and helped him pee in it. FUNNY SITE let me tell you!
After finally getting to the hospital, the doctor and nurses (all female by the way) got nate out of the 4-runner (not very carefully it seemed) and into the ER. They got some morphine running thru his veins and took him for x-rays. He came out with a broken left wrist, and 3 fractures in his pelvis. HIS WHAT? Yeah, his pelvis. One of the WORST fractures a person can have. They expressed their concern about internal bleeding, and told me they were life flighting him to U of U hospital. When they began prepping him for flight, I left to get the truck so I could head out and go to the hospital with him. Right when we left, I gathered my thoughts and made the dreaded call to Nate's mom. When she got on the phone, she didn't even say hi. All she said was "whats wrong". They weren't expecting to hear from us until Monday afternoon when we got back, but this was only sunday. Mothers intuition I guess. She said they would head down quickly so they could be there with him while I was enroute. The guys were awesome and got our stuff loaded into the cab of the truck and had Tommy (our dog) all ready to go. I got there, had a momentary freak out, the guys calmed me down and I drove all the way to U of U hospital from Evanston in about 3 hrs. Nate wrecked about 3pm, we got him to Evanston around 5:30pm and they flew him out at about 7:30pm. It was a 25 minute flight from Evanston to SLC.
About midnight they finally moved Nate from the ER to his room. His dad, my dad, and Ben gave him a blessing and then they all left while I stayed with him for the night. The nurse tried to tell me that it was policy that people couldn't stay the night, but he didn't have a roommate so I insisted that I stay. After about 3 hrs of sleep between the both of us, it was finally morning. Out of all of this, all I can say is that I am so grateful that we have such amazing friends. I have never seen so many people band together and literally take the shirts off their backs to help their friends. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends, and I am so proud to say they are my friends. I would do anything for these guys, and it's good to know they would do the same. I honestly tried to think of how many friends I've had in my life that would do anything for me. I can count them on 1 hand. Now that I have these guys in my life, I can't count them all. So if you guys are reading this, thank you and we love you.
To be continued........
4 comments:
Sorry to hear about the accident. I hope he gets better fast. Good luck.
Oh, no - that is so scary, LeeAnn. I too am so glad you had wonderful friends there to help you so you didn't have to go through that alone. I can't imagine how scared you must have been - way to be strong!!
I'm happy to hear that Nate is well and I hope it's a speedy recovery.
Love ya!
Wow! I loved how you helped him pee :) What a sweet wife! :)
hey i have been keeping track of nate through marie give him a kiss on the forehead for me ( thats probley the only place that doesn't hurt)
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