Tragic Tale at the Park . . .

We went to the park today . . .  the weather was beautiful, we had a picnic, and the kids were having a great time. That's when it became a tragedy.

The park itself is about 1.5 to 2 miles in length and has a large pond, lined with lily pads and yellow irises, that runs through its' center. Around the edge of the park is a gravel bike / jogging trail that winds through the trees, under roads and over bridges. It is very beautiful.

I brought the girl's  bikes, which they were enjoying on the trail by racing ahead of me and then waiting in the shade for me to catch up. We had just rounded one end of the park and were heading back on the other side of the park when my heart sank. Lulu had again ridden ahead of me to wait in the shade, to the point of beginning about 500 feet in front of me, when I saw her turn off the path onto the grass by some large trees. Getting into some shade on a hot day is not tragic, nor is it tragic to ride your bike on the grass at this park, unless you picked the spot that Lulu turn onto. That spot was 15 feet in elevation above the pond and had a very steep slope down to the ponds edge. She had meant to merely turn around and face back my direction, but as she turned onto the bank's slope she gained speed too quickly, and instead of turning all the way around only made it as far as pointing herself straight down the hill. Living in a world where we drive all the time, and make judgements about others speeds and distances, I quickly calculated that there was no way she was going to stop and knew she was going to end up in the pond. I started running before she was even down the hill. I was not the only one aware of her, another walker closer than myself started running for her, and a kayaker on the pond heard her scream going down the hill and started sprinting for her in his boat. I didn't know how deep the pond was, and didn't know what I was going to find by the time I got there (I was calculating in my head how much time was passing so I might know how much air she might have). Let's just say my heart was skipping a few beats. The other walker got to her first before I had even covered half of the distance that I needed to. He fished her and her bike out of the lily pads and reeds. When I reached her she was crying, covered in mud and water weeds, wet from head to toe. She was so scared that she was sobbing, so I just gave her a big hug. The walk (she wasn't going to get back on that bike) back to the car was the MOST tragic as we tried to clean the mud off her and her bike. It's hard to get mud off anyone when they are soaking wet, sobbing, and the only thing you have handy is that really cheap one-ply toilet paper they have inside those scary concrete bathrooms they always have in parks. Anyway that was our big tragedy of the day. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be a little less eventful. -CRW