I get a phone call at 5:45ish Friday morning from Clint. “Wanna hear a funny scary story?” He got up waaaaay early to go help with the town pancake breakfast, and realized he needed to fill up his truck with gas. So, he pulls up behind this truck and starts to walk between the two vehicles to get to the gas pump when his police academy training popped into his head reminding him to NEVER walk in between two vehicles if there’s a chance one may start moving… can you see where this is going? Yeah, he walked around behind his truck instead and the driver in the other one threw it in reverse and punched the gas. Clint’s truck had it’s emergency brake on and it STILL jumped back about 6 inches, hitting him in the shin with the ball hitch, leaving a nice 1 ½ inch cut. I don’t even want to think about the alternative ending to this story, one with him in the hospital with two broken legs! YUCK! But keep reading, it gets better!
Clint starts jumping up and down, yelling (I say crying, he says not :) and the guy thinking his leg is broken comes running over. Clint butches up and says he’s fine and examines the truck, no scratches on ours except a large crack on one of the plastic pieces on the bumper. So he asks the guy for his insurance information and the guy says no. “Do you have insurance?” “Yes.” “Can I see it?” “No.” “Ok, I’ll call the police and they’ll get it from you and give it to me.” “The police are coming?” “Yeah, that’s what happens when you get in an accident!” The guy starts getting nervous at this point. The officer that shows up went through the academy with Clint (small town!) and goes to the other guy first. He speaks very broken English (when asked what town he lives in he replies “USA.” “Zip Code?” “USA.” You get the idea). Turns out he is here illegally from Guatemala, no work visa, nada! He says he bought the truck from someone but it’s not in his name, no registration, obviously no license and no insurance. The officer asks him if there are any guns or drugs in the vehicle and he says no. At this point the officer tells Clint he can go do what he needs to do, she’ll come find him when she’s finished. We knew she arrested him after Clint left because he was illegal, but we learned later that not only did he have a gun in the glove box (where he kept reaching to get papers for her) he had a nice little stash of meth! So, Clint has to write up a statement and have an officer pick it up so they can charge this guy with a bunch of stuff, deport him and if he ever comes back he’s automatically a felon.
Lovely way to start the holiday weekend, eh?
The pancake breakfast was fun, we were in charge of music and put waaaay too much energy into trying to help organize a quartet of high schoolers to sing a few songs, but they did great! Then when Maddie and I finally were able to get down there (I say finally for Clint’s sake, he was ansy for us to arrive – we came at 6:40!) Clint and I sang “God Bless the USA”. It was kinda sad for me, everyone after came up and said they didn’t know I could play guitar and how wonderful it was that I knew how to play and when did I learn and all that… That’s what I know KNOWN for in high school, so that was one of those “I guess I’m growing up” moments that makes you want to cry a little bit!
The rest of the day was pretty blah; it was too hot to go to the parade, Clint left to hike up the mountain in the afternoon and it stormed that night so Madison and I stayed home from the fireworks (she was asleep by that point anyway!). Oh well!
Saturday was fun though! Maddie and I made cookies for the camping trip and she got to lick off her first beater! She did a really good job too! I was definitely impressed! Then we packed up and headed up the mountain with Michele and the girls (Andy was with Clint). The boys had taken a new trail and didn’t know what time they’d be up to the cabin so we went looking for them around 2:30. We finally found them at 4 – stinky, exhausted, and happy for jackets, fresh water and my delicious chocolate chip cookies! The trail had disappeared and they had trekked straight up the mountain, through thorns, bushes, rocks, rain (they parked under a big rock during an 1 ½ hour rainstorm), and even followed a bear trail for a while… what these boys were thinking, I don’t know. I doubt I want to know! And on the way home, Clint was already saying, “It was a fun hike!” Yikes!
Once we got them back to the cabin and fed, they washed up in some warm water in the sink. We waited outside with the girls and Michele’s 2 year old asked, “What are Clint and Daddy doing? Are they taking a bath together?” to which we answered, “Yes, they are!” “Oh, that’s cuz they like each other, huh?” to which we again answered, “Yes!” :) Ah, the innocence of childhood! Made us giggle!
Michele bought all three girls matching princess umbrellas and they were a hoot to watch! They were so excited for those things, they took them everywhere – to the outhouse, in the cabin, to the fire ring… it was so fun!
Clint decided he needed to be macho and pushed a tree over. Yes, you read that right, he PUSHED a tree over! Of course, it was one of those hazard trees that are marked by the forest service to be removed, so it was probably weak. Either that or Clint is REALLY strong, because it fell over really fast!
It was so nice to relax with friends and have nothing to do but play! It got me thinking that we are so lucky to have friends who have the same traditions we do! Madison will always get to go camping twice a year with her best friends and I think that is so cool!
I’m already excited for Labor Day weekend (the next time we go up and camp on the mountain)!
