PROVO RIVER, WE ALMOST DIED

Well, my brother was suppose to take my sister's out boating. Things didn't work out. He got sick. I volunteered to take them rafting down the Provo River. Nate owns a raft. It may have a few holes but they have been patched, definitely river worthy. We headed out on the river and Emily, my sister, insisted on being in the steering position. We hit rocks and tree branches until finally I had enough.

Then I took over. I organized each person, made assignments and took over steering. We were getting close to a tricky part of the river where you have to go under a bridge and then the river turns a sharp right. Then it flows under several consecutive arches that hold up a railroad bridge. I readied my team and said, "Everyone row forward and watch this extreme maneuvering." I underestimated the pull of the river. I didn't turn the boat in time. The raft sandwiched one of the archways and we all went flying. I think my last thought before I hit the water was, "It is going to be cold." And it was.

The water was freezing it took my breathe away. I looked ahead and saw Kimberly on top of the upside down raft. I counted heads. Once my sisters and my cousin were accounted for I started heading toward the raft. I saw my little sister Emily slip under the water and I grabbed her and shoved her toward the raft. (Later she said I saved her life. I told her since I took it in the first place, I deserved to have to save it.) The rocks were all covered in slime. We couldn't stand against the pull of the river, so we continued sliding and bumping against rocks and tree branches. We all finally got hold of the raft; however, no one was in control of the raft. Emily ordered Kimberly off the top of the raft and then directed everyone to flip it. Then we all started to dive into the raft one at time. I was the last one in.

The raft has four chambers the bottom chamber had popped so we were sagging into the river. The raft had at least four inches of freezing water in the bottom. It felt like we were slowly sinking. We had to find a safe spot to get out. Ironically, we all wore flip flops and we could only find one of each pair. No one had a complete pair of shoes to help carry the raft out of the canyon so we didn't want to get out too soon. Slowly we made our way down the river. We were all trebling some from cold some from fear. We found a flip flops in the water and completed all pairs but one, a miracle. Then we found an easy part to beach the boat and get out.

We were all relieved to be on solid ground. My legs were shaking partly from the extreme cold but mostly because my overconfidence almost killed me and four of my family members. We pulled on to someones backyard the lady from the window yelled, "Private property." None of us were willing to get back into the boat and float down further to public property, so we just avoided her yard. We hiked the boat to the road.

I and Kimberly sat on the raft as the others went to get the car. I looked at Kimberly and said, "It seems like I am always trying to kill you." She said, "Are you kidding me? This is the greatest story ever I am so glad it happened." Well, it is a great story but it is only great because we all survived. (I will post pictures later if the camera, that filled with water, still works. We are going to check it in a few more days.)