Off Roading

Here is possibly the best ie most entertaining story of the season. The whole Stradley Clan got to go to the cabin the Saturday after Christmas. Cabin and snow equals 4 wheeling and sleds together.... It was a lot of fun. We attached a sled the a four wheeler and away we went. Loads of fun. Jaqui even came and she squealed with excitement. There were a few tip overs and some getting stuck but all in all fun.
We went back to the cabin to thaw out and Marlow wasn't finished 4 wheeling. He asked if anyone else wanted to go. I was the only one that volunteered. So Marlow and Grandpa Treglown and I went out again. I just got on the back of Marlow's bike because I knew I would either get hurt or stuck by myself. Again... "Not Shiloh! She is clumsy!" Marlow did his best to scare me and have fun with it. He kept asking if I was scared and I said not. He asked if I wanted to drive... heck no. We got stuck tons and had lots of fun. We figured Grandpa Treglown just was shaking his head at us. It was a blast.
We went to see an old mill and Marlow decided that he wanted to try going down a ravine that would lead back to the cabin. I didn't know any better so I agreed. It looked a little deep going down but we wouldn't have a problem once we got up speed... right? We must have gotten stuck 10 time going down and we just pushed her back out and kept going... why? I dunno. couldn't go back the way we came so keep moving forward right? Wrong! Grandpa was the smart one. He didn't go with us. He just stayed on the higher road and we could see him just watching us to make sure we didn't kill ourselves. Then... the 4 wheeler just stopped. I see Marlow ahead of me on the bike trying to get out of yet another snow drift and he just slumps over... uh oh. The transmission is dead. Ha ha ha awesome. We were stuck. Well, we can walk back the way we came or up the side of the ravine or keep moving forward. Marlow said the cabin wasn't far so... we went forward. It was cold and the snow was knee deep on me. Its hard to walk through knee deep snow. Marlow went in front to plow the way for me. We had to stop and take breathers... it seemed pretty far! It wouldn't have been if there wasn't so much snow. Just walking we got so hot. Taking off gloves and hats and jackets... probably dumb. Dad just fell over at one point and said "This would be a nice way to die. I hear when you freeze to death you just fall asleep. That would be nice." As you can guess... we were tired and felt pretty stupid. I couldn't stop giggling about the whole thing. It was pretty funny. I think Marlow felt pretty dumb... but we still laughed. He asked if I wanted him to carry me... no way. If he died I wouldn't be able to carry him!
Grandpa figured something was wrong when we left our bike and started walking. He went back to the cabin and got the boys. We finally got out of the ravine and all the boys went to see if they could get the wench and pull the bike up the side of the ravine. They didn't get back to the cabin for 3 or 4 hours! We were a bit worried. No luck. Dad went back a week or two later and pulled it out.
My favorite part about this whole adventure... Dad blamed it all on me once we got back to the cabin! If I was driving we never would have gone down there or if i wouldn't have agreed to his hair brained idea we never would have gotten stuck. What a guy :) It was a wonderful bonding experience and I even got my first case of frost bite! It really was a fun mishap. I'm not sure if Marlow found it that funny... but I did!