"I don't know why I'm not gray..."

This guy has been my son for 39 years now. I don't know why I am still surprised when he does things that scare me half to death. Bungee jumping, dirt bike riding (photo at left), scuba diving, jet skis... He's always involved in something that should turn my hair gray! He has two children now, and I was beginning to think I could relax. His call from Arizona last week telling me the following "little tale" assures me my days of worrying for his safety are not over.

When he told me about his adventure, I was getting confused. I said, "Why don't you write about it, Matthew?" He hesitated, then told me he already had. Seems he subscribes to a blog for off-road riders, either on motorcycles or 4 wheel drive vehicles. He had asked them about good roads to go off road on while he was on a business trip to Prescott, as he had some time to kill and decided to explore the mountains around Jerome. For some reason, he didn't rent a 4 wheel drive Jeep as he planned. But the weather was beautiful when he started out, as you can see in the first photo. (TER COTHRAN, it's a good thing you were tied up with family that weekend, or you might have shared this experience!) He made me promise not to leave a comment on the off-road blog (like, Oh, my gosh Matthew, you could have been killed!). I promised.

I got his permission to put this on our blog. And I was the mother who was scared when he was scuba diving with sharks and giant stingrays all over the Caribbean! He sent beautiful underwater pictures from those expeditions.

"I found FR413. Unfortunately, 2wd Chevy Trailblazers, serious thunderstorms, 6300' elevations, rockslides and mud do not mix.

When I got almost to the top, I was surrounded by serious storms, 40mph winds, rain and more rain. I was screwed. The road had started to wash out and I was losing traction. A 3 ft boulder came tumbling down, bouncing like a super ball about five yards in front of me as I approached the top of the pass. My rental 2wd was pelted with pea and golf ball size rocks.

I will never forget that image of the boulder bouncing down the hill, thinking of the damage that it could have done to me and the rental.

I gassed it as there was no place to turn around and I could see blue skies in the distance.

Then I saw this:

No place to turn around. After I backed out of the slot, there was a wall on one side and 1000'+ drop on the other. And it was steep and muddy and raining cats and dogs.

I had to back out about a half a mile to find a place that I could "barely turn around". I had to inch up to the drop off and then pull forward to the wall several times until I was pointed back down. I would get out of the truck each time to judge my distance to the drop. I was concerned with getting stuck and the side of the road collapsing sending me over the edge.

Remember the 3ft boulder from my trip up the pass? Now, the road back down (where I had just come from), was completely blocked from the rock slides. I got out of the truck and could hear the rocks still falling around me and it was still raining like no tomorrow.

I was trapped. Nowhere to go, up or down. Rocks falling all around me, on the side of a mountain in a thunderstorm.

I was ready to abandon the truck and call 911 for help. I grabbed my cell phone. No coverage. I was thinking about waiting the storm out (I had enough water and snacks to last a few days), but I was not comfortable with the thought of riding a landslide off the side of the mountain.

I kept thinking about my wonderful kids and wife. And how long it would take for someone to find me.

I got out of the truck and somehow managed to clear a path through the landslide. I would not be surprised if I did not move a rock that weighed at least 300 pounds. It kept rolling and bouncing all the way down. I could not see it hit the bottom because of the clouds, but I could still hear it crashing for what seemed like an eternity.

I made it back down to Jerome and then to Prescott, and I am currently sitting in my hotel room nursing a six pack.

I am flying home tomorrow and had a route picked out that would take me to Crown King and then down in to Phoenix. I'll stick to the pavement for the rest of this trip.

Somewhere on the mountain. (At right)

Note the water running next to the wall.




A ghost town/old mine on the way up. (Below) I would like to have spent some time here."

~ Matthew Rider

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MIKE FOY correctly identified his old homeplace on the blog. This is what he wrote:

"Thanks for placing one of my favorite places (and bountiful memories) ever. A two bedroom house with an extremely small bathroom served my brother, mother and daddy well for twenty one years before I left for Lubbock and met my soulmate. The house used to have two large Juniper trees in front of the porch and I remember my dad on one particular night was sitting on the porch smoking a cigar and waiting on me to return from a location he was not aware of. I was famous for that, although not very bright of me. I was at the time in love with PEGGY VIRDEN. She and Barbara Gleghorn had gone to a revival at the First Baptist Church and PEGGY had asked me if I would meet her after the service and walk her back to Barbara's house. My father was not aware that I was out of the yard, much less six or seven blocks away waiting on my girlfriend to exit the church.

To bring you up to date on one little segment of this story, I was not the most studious classmate that exited Ballinger High School and my parents put a curfew, if you will, on me going somewhere on school nights. You guessed it, this particular night was a school night.

The revival lasted longer than I anticipated and I knew that I was going to be in deep trouble, just didn't know how bad. To make this a shorter story, when I did finally return my father was still on the front porch waiting for me to show up. I could hear him breathing hard as I passed through those Junipers and that was when he came to life with some choice words and planted a number ten shoe right in the appropriate place to make an impression. Lots of memories in that house on 9th Street. Even remember the phone number. (8191) Maybe someday I will tell you some stories about our hardware store that we had in the early 50s. Love your Blog.” ~ MIKE FOY

The following was sent by CHARLES FIKES:

“I was thinking of something to help IRENE in someway as she goes through some tough times. I thought of the following that happened just a couple of weeks ago.

My youngest granddaughter, Katelyn (four), was staying with her grandmother when the following happened. Grandmother was trying to get her CD player to work and was getting frustrated because it would not cooperate. Katelyn, seeing this, said to her Grandmother, ’Come and let's pray about it.’ They bowed their heads and Katelyn said the following prayer, ‘I wish I may I wish I might have this wish I wish tonight. Dear God, let Grandmother fix her CD player.’ Sure enough, Grandmother got the CD player to work shortly thereafter.

So, if God will answer a simple prayer from a four year old, surely he will answer ours and heal IRENE. Our prayers will be with IRENE during this difficult time.”~ CHARLES FIKES

I have spoken with IRENE's daughter Amy at least once a day since the surgery. I don't think any of us really understand the complexity of the surgery IRENE had, nor the difficult recovery she is going through. At first, she was extremely anxious when awaking in ICU with so many tubes running in and out of her. At one point her pulse was so fast that the Resident thought she might have had a mild heart attack. Thank goodness, that was not the case.

Due to the length (11 hours) and difficulty of her surgery, the swelling prohibits her from speaking, swallowing, or breathing through her mouth or nose. She's assisted by a temporary tracheotomy. She is communicating with Amy by way of a dry eraser board and markers.

Yesterday, Amy said IRENE was frustrated at not being able to speak, and was a little irritable. Well, yah! I can certainly understand. The frustration and anger is a good sign to me. I know she is going to fight the good fight. I also know the prayers and good thoughts we are sending are helping, as Amy said she is resting better today, and not so anxious.

Today I talked to JERRY DAVIS, who was upbeat and mischievous and fun to talk to as ever. That is a sure sign that he is recovering. He's still taking the radiation treatments, but the last one will be August 7th. Let's keep a picture in our minds of his lungs being completely clear and healthy.

Oh, yes, I AM getting a few more gray hairs now. The events of the past year, even the past six months are beginning to show! I'm ready to hear more GOOD STUFF! Send me your stories.

Marilyn

P.S.
If you have missed some of the blogs and would like to read the older ones, go to the "Archive" box on the left side of the blog post. Click on it and it will give you the dates. I believe they save them by week. Anyway, click on a time period and it will show the blog posts from that time. You can also click on any of the web "albums", and it will take you to the web and show the photos with titles.