Our first family picnic at the Ranch

After two months of going out and working on the ranch, cutting down dead trees and scrubs, digging up cactus; which by the way has its own elegant beauty, we were ready to have everyone come out camping.

We found a perfect weekend, the one just before my 51st birthday. Everyone but Torie & Travis would be there. We cleared a space big enough to bring in the RV, I even mowed a big stripe so we could have a picnic area and place to setup tents for camping, too.

Eric even got to try out his new axe.

Everything was planned. All loose ends, tied. I even got out the electric generator and made sure that it could run the A/C in the RV. We were going to be 'boondocking' for our first trip with the RV.

What's that they say about mice and men? Well 'murphy' was hard at work. We started watching the weather forecast and it wasn't looking good. Storms were headed this way. Camping was definitely out. After shaking the disappointment of our RV maiden voyage, we called everyone to say that the picnic was still on. We would just go out and have fun. The rain wasn't moving in until late Saturday afternoon so we could have fun and get out before the rain hit.

Oooops, I guess we didn't make it. Just as we were starting to eat, the thunder storm rolled in with fury and soaked us good. We must have sat under a tarp at the picnic table for 45 minutes. When the rain slowed a bit, we made mad dashes back and forth to our vehicles to get everything loaded up.

Todd was the first to leave. We were saying our goodbyes to Eric and his family when I heard the sound of an engine rev'ing and tires spinning in mud and gravel. I must have heard it for some time when I suddenly realized that it was Todd and he was stuck.

I ran to the driveway and to my astonishment, I saw that Todd had dug himself several nice deep trenches in the "perfect" driveway that Eric and I had worked so hard on. He couldn't get out forward but he could back out. I suggested that he come back to the grass and let me get out with the truck so I could hook up a tow strap and pull him out.

Yeah, that worked out well. I got stuck just as bad, if not worse.

We tried everything we could think of. We put branches and logs under the tires. That didn't work. We managed to get the truck close to the road but really got stuck so I backed it up and got stuck again. We went on a hike through the propery and found some old pieces of tin to use to get traction. That helped out a lot. Thanks to Ann's quick thinking and answered prayers, we got the truck close enough to the road to get a neighbor to hook up a tow strap and pull me out into the road.

This is Molly, barely containing herself as she laughed at all the fun we were having. Don't believe me?

Ann was thoroughly enjoying herself. See?

I can't believe how well we worked through that. Ann found a neighbor with a big truck who sat at the edge of the road until we could get the truck close enough for him to hook on. After that I used my truck to pull Todd and Eric's cars out. We all got out safe and sound with no injuries. All in all, it was a fun adventure.