My wonderful family...

We just got back from our hiking vacation to Havasu Falls (and a much more detailed [with photos and video!] posting to come later), but here's a small tribute to my wonderful family.

On our drive home, tired and dusty after our 20+ miles of hiking through the desert, we came upon a very recent accident. A Suburban towing a travel trailer had blown the left rear tire and ended up on it's right side blocking the entire roadway. We didn't see the accident, and weren't the first to come onto the accident, but we were one of the first.

So, I hopped out to see what I could help with. As I got to the Suburban, I could see several people unloading "stuff" (meaning seats, tools, boxes of honey, etc.) from the back of the Suburban as they were trying to get to the front, and I helped out for a few moments. Inside, I saw a black lab and one male arm. There was a guy who later introduced himself as a Phoenix EMT, and a guy wearing some Fire Dept. t-shirt (apparently on a motorcycle trip) who were trying to remove a 60+ year old man from the front passenger seat through the smashed windshield. I was a bit surprised at this, as I couldn't imagine that they wouldn't have suspected spinal injuries, but I don't have any medical training beyond very basic First Aid, and my very lapsed CPR training. None-the-less, "Frank" was pulled from the vehicle.

But before long, my whole family was there with me.

My wife brought out a blanket and pillow we'd had on our trip to lay "Frank" down on. She also drug out a tube tent (more on that in the full trip report) that we used to make some shade for Frank. My son helped me haul the stuff out of the back of the Suburban and later held a corner of the shade tent. He also poured some water for Bridget the lab, who was upset in her own way. My oldest daughter set out our warning triangle to keep us from having to deal with a rear-ender traffic accident behind us. My youngest daughter dug through our hiking gear to fetch our first aid kit and the gauze bandages that ended up on Frank's elbow (his only apparent injury--a Miracle!). [My biggest concern was the propane tanks on the trailer, and I was able to detach the regulator and remove them from the trailer.]

None of us did anything significant. But we all helped out. And we did so while surrounded by 50 other adults who were doing nothing more than sitting in their air conditioned cars wondering what had happened and how long they were going to be inconvenienced by the closed road.

I could not be more proud of my family!