In a van down in the river!

Here you go people. The explanation for this!

So, my friend Jes and I decided to take the kids to go to this place called “Little Jamaica”. http://www.dixiesunnews.com/articles/2013/09/12/little-jamaica/. We did not read this article before we went. We should have. :) Jes had gotten directions from a neighbor who had said that there was a way that you can just drive directly up to the river and bypass the 10 minute, semi dangerous hike down a waterfall. He also stated that he thought our vans would be just fine. We decided that with the 6 children that outnumbered us this was a grand option. We got a little lost initially and actually ended up in the upper parking lot where a wise human would have actually just stayed put and hiked down....NOT US! We had a short conversation with a man about the back road and he warned us that even in his truck there was a part that was a little steep. “Two mom’s in mini vans....nothing can stop us!” was pretty much the direct quote that I threw out into the universe. He chuckled! We drove around the back way. Initially the road was just a hard packed dirt road. No biggie. We had been given directions to just stay to the right and we would be fine. So we went right. There was a small little river to cross so I crossed it and floored it up the slightly sandy incline and made it up just fine. Nothing to worry about. I waited a couple of yards ahead to see how Jes faired. 2 minutes later I ran back and saw her peeling out on the sandy hill. She asked me to drive up it so I backed up into the river and managed to get up the hill. Why stop now? We kept going. The road was getting a bit rougher. There were a couple of good bumps and knocks of rocks on the bottom of the car, but I saw no reason to not get to the river. Right before the parking area that was our destination there was a pretty steep hill that had a wacky turn. When I turned the corner, my car slid down the sand a little and then we were there. Safe and sound. Not too difficult.

The river/spring/waterfall was a pretty cool place. It is directly underneath a really high I15 bridge so there are some pretty creepy sounds that come from high in the sky. I may have been feeling a little anxiety because of the bumpy ride in, but the sounds from above and then the huge piece of semi truck part that couldn’t have come from anywhere else but the sky put me on the edge a bit. We enjoyed ourselves but it wasn’t totally a super safe place for all of the tiny kids we brought along. For instance, when we had packed up and were headed out I told the kids to stay put and I would help them individually across the river. It was about 2.5 feet deep but had a pretty swift current in the middle that could take our kids with it pretty easily. So, with Wes on my hip I started to take a kid across when all of the sudden our water cooler, flip flops and my two girls are floating down the river. I took off after them when all of the sudden another little girl was floating toward us. We eventually grabbed all the kids and crud. I threw a little “Why do you never listen to a word I say?” motherly temper tantrum in a fit of rage that was witnessed by a couple of adventuring onlookers. It was fun! I wish you all could have been there for that!

So the whole time we were playing in the river Jes kept saying how she was worried about getting out. She didn’t want to go back the way that we came so we discussed our options with some of the locals that had brought their big trucks down. One man said that he thought it might be possible to take our vans the other way but that hmmmm....maybe not. I asked him if he would come and save us if we got stuck and he said he would love to (another chuckle). So we got to our cars with the decision to go a different way. I was feeling super flustered and completely and totally anxiotous at this point so I thought it would be a good idea to say a prayer. We got together and I prayed with great faith and knowledge that we were going to get out of this place. Jes told me to go first so that if I made it I could then come and drive her car through the river. We drove over to the river. I didn’t think about stopping and seeing how deep it was, checking the current, or anything because well, I had just prayed that we would make it out and I knew we would. So I went for it. I don’t think I can quite explain the feeling of sinking a van into a river. I really did make it pretty far and so when it just kept going deeper then stalled and came to a complete stop I was pretty shocked. Oh, I hope I never have to feel that feeling again...literally or figuratively. So, the next brilliant thing I did was open the door because....I don’t even know what I was going to do. Push the car out with my amazing strength and adrenalin or something? Water came rushing in through my door, and then kept coming from other places. It was 3-5 inches high after the 10 minutes that we sat there. I had told my kids before driving into the river that they needed to cheer for me “You can do it mom!” It is a little chant I have them cheer when I am riding my bike with a trailer, or running up a hill with a stroller and I need a little encouragement. They cheered and when the car stopped it was silent. I turned around and looked them in the eyes and said “I just did the craziest thing that I have ever done in my whole life you guys. We are stuck in a river. I am nuts! Can you guys believe I just did that?” So after driving into the river along with the crazy lunatic temper tantrum that I had just thrown at them I was one humiliated momma. I wasn’t even mad. I was totally stuck and completely mortified! Jes ran up and asked me what we should do and I sent her to retrieve the guy that already had committed to saving us. :) He drove up in his big old Dodge Ram with a big smile on his face, a cigarette in his lips and a beer in his hand ready to get to work. :) He had already warned us that he didn’t have a tow rope but that he had some tie downs. We busted through a couple of tie downs until we combined 3 and were able to tow me backwards out of the water. It was quite a relief to be out of water, but the car wouldn’t start. A random guy pulled up on his 4 wheeler about this time and said that he had a tow rope at his house just up the hill. He drove off and got it. We decided that since I was already wet we would take the van back through the river and get to a place where I could be towed. The kids were in Jes’s van at this point. My van got through the river pretty easily but then we got stuck in the sand on the other side for about 20 minutes. We busted the tow about 5 times trying to dig me out of the sand. After we finally got out of there we made it through a small river and up the hill quite easily. It was pretty amazing to open the doors and have the water just come pouring out. Oh man, the craziness!

At this point we were all pretty excited that the nightmare was over. Right! When we got back to Jes and the kids we asked this man if he would lead us up the way we went came in just in case we got stuck and needed a tow. He said he would. Jes and I walked up the hill discussing how to make it up. I was a bit worried about the sand but pretty confident that we would be fine once we made it up the hill. She had me drive because obviously I was the best driver in the whole world and why not trust the lunatic that just drove into the river with your brand new leased Town and Country. To make a long story short....like an hour and a half long story... I got 10 feet up the sand hill, got stuck, rocked out of it, backed down, tried it again, backed down, the dude tried, got really really stuck, towed the car backwards, tried to tow the van up, broke the tow like 5 times, got stuck, towed it back down, and then stopped to make another plan. Oh, I need to mention that the sand was probably 200 degrees and every time we towed the blasted thing this guy was laying down on the sand frying and trying to find a good place to hook it. It is also important to mention that the kids were amazing thanks to The Lorax, but at this point they were getting a little nervous and the babies and one child were weeping and wailing. Right at that moment we started to make a new plan one of this guys co-workers came to the scene on his four wheeler. We told him what we had tried and asked him if he had any other ideas. The only advice he had for us was “Well, maybe you shouldn’t have come down here in the first place.” No, really?! Then he drove off. Our helper cursed his name and then we decided that the only way we were going to get this other van out was through the river. It was a horrible feeling to have that be our only option, but we had exhausted that sand hill and there was no way it was going to happen. I felt sick! We made a plan. He would tow us and give us an extra tug out of the river if and when we needed it. Jes told me to drive. Great! Two vans in one day! Right when we were getting in the car that one man decided he didn’t want to be a complete jerk and came back to the scene. He said “I’m driving!” Phew! He got in and the two men in the two cars drove off toward the river, into the river, out of the river, over the sand, through the other river and out on dry land with the car alive and running! Best feeling ever!

So that is the story! I have never felt so stuck. It was crazy to have finally gotten unstuck from the worst stuck I have ever been in only to realize that we were still stuck. :) It was a miracle that either of our vans made it out. Lots of "kinda like life" lessons in this story for years to come, great memories, and tons of gratitude!