West Virginia, here we come!

Well, we've added another event to our busy summer schedule: a trip to West Virginia next week! Susan won't be coming for the summer this year (she's a busy 19 year-old, now), so we're going over there to visit her. Also we'll pick up David for his six week stay with us. The kids are excited about the trip, because they haven't done much out-of-state travelling (not to mention we haven't seen Susan and David since Christmas!). We made a few trips to Kansas and Arkansas when Mikey and Emma were younger, but now that they're older they'll have more appreciation for their surroundings: historical sites, cultural differences, and the changing terrain along the way. I'm very excited for them (and me!) to see mountains. That's always a thrill for us flat-landers.

Mom and Dad have kindly agreed to take Coco for the week (longer, if they want!), and we've lined up a friend in Eau Claire to check on our cat and house while we're gone. Mom and Dad can enjoy Coco's watchdog services for awhile; hopefully her barking presence will deter the local bears from wandering into their yard.

This is the last week of school for K-12 kids in Eau Claire. It's also my last week of work for the summer. Friday we expect to see Mom, Dad and Bill here. We'll pack Friday night and head out for West Virginia bright & early Saturday morning. Jon talked to Susan today and is having her check into motels.

There's been lots of local excitement involving Jon's family lately. One episode last weekend was a big pontoon/speedboat collision on Lake Holcombe-- Jon's brother Phil and his wife were on the scene. They weren't actually in the accident, but they have a vacation home on the lake, and the accident involved their next door neighbors (and the neighbors' brand new pontoon).

The neighbors and a group of friends had just left a restaurant on the lake and boarded their pontoon. They had moved away from the dock but were still getting situated in their seats when a speedboat full of young guys from Ladysmith crashed into them and actually came to rest on top their deck. Amazingly, no one was killed, but five of the pontoon occupants were injured (one seriously).

Phil and Jill were across the lake at their cabin, and heard the accident, followed by screams. They took their pontoon over to the scene and provided assistance until medical help arrived (Jill is a registered nurse, so no doubt was a big help). Two of the passengers were actually in the water and were pulled out. One needed to be resuscitated and one was knocked out but came to on his own. The most seriously injured had a broken eye socket and jaw, along with other breaks on his body. He and another guy actually made contact with the boat's propeller and had to be pulled out from under the speedboat.

That same weekend, Jon's OTHER brother, Eric, made the paper, too. A man had just lit fire to his estranged wife's garage and was being pursued by police when he crashed into the rocks outside Eric's bar. The bar was closed, so luckily no one was in the parking lot, but Eric, Jody, and Alec (two years older than Michael) were in the adjacent house. The police tried to get the man to come out of the car, but when he did not respond or comply with their requests to show his hands, they shot and killed him.

The week before Jody had witnessed a serious motorcycle accident in the same location.

Then this weekend there was a story in the paper about a guy in Ruby (home of the Hurlburt hunting shack) who was arrested by homeland security guys for selling stolen military equipment (machine guns and some larger items) to international buyers over the internet. He was a military supply officer on a ship but had been relieved of his duties earlier that year because he was caught ordering items that his ship didn't actually need. Jon didn't know the guy personally, but was familiar with his family's property (distinctive for having an old army tank parked in its front yard).

Lots of goings-on for a small, usually unremarkable part of the world! (Though Jon would never describe it as such).