I had just sat down with the wife and kids for dinner.  When the phone rang, I wasn't expecting what I heard... 

My best friend's wife was calling to get directions to a trailhead that we regularly 4wheel.  I gave her the directions and asked what was up.  She told me that Pat had rolled the Jeep, but everything was OK.  He had been out on a simple trail with his boys (aged 2 and 4) and had a problem while helping recover another vehicle that had a problem. 

As soon as I got off the phone with her, I started calling around to find out more.  Cell coverage in the area is pretty spotty, so I wasn't shocked that I got a lot of voice mails.  Then my phone started ringing back as the people I had left messages with started calling back.  Nobody knew what was going on, but everyone wanted to be in the loop.  If I needed help or he needed help, they wanted to lend a hand. 

Pat called me a few minutes later and let me know part of what happened.  He was on a borrowed phone.  After hearing the real story, I was on my way out of the door to drive up to the trail (about 2 hours away) with his wife.  We would be driving separately, but I could lead her up.  The plan was for her to pick up the boys and head back and for me to stay with him until we got things squared away with the Jeep. 

At this point, the Jeep was laying upside-down on the trail.  He had walked out to a campsite with the boys.  There were some other folks in the area, largely made up of firefighters and police officers camping and 4wheeling for the weekend.  The wives and girlfriends of the campers swung into action feeding and making sure the kids were OK while Pat tried to find a way to get the Jeep off the trail so that it could be recovered... 

I still didn't really know what happened... but I had 5 trail rigs and a trailer on their way to help if needed.  All of this 1 1/2 to 2 hours from where we all live...  At 8:00pm on a Saturday.  Personal lives interrupted.  Plans changed.  

After an eternity, I arrived, with Helen right behind, at the campsite.  The boys ran up to me looking for Mommy (our vans look pretty similar... I wasn't in my truck or Jeep).  They were fine.  Pat's knee was pretty torn up, but he was mobile and trying to get everything ready to tow it back to town.  Pat's Jeep was hurt... 

One of the first things we recommend is to upgrade the rollcage.  In the case of a Jeep CJ, the factory cage doesn't protect rear seat occupants... Pat had built and rebuilt his cage to protect the rear seat passengers.  The boys both were sitting in the rear seats with full harnesses.  They were unhurt, despite the wild ride they took... 

Pat had gotten out of the Jeep to make sure the winch cable didn't have any binds.  The Jeep he was helping to move suddenly lurched while it was being re-rigged and he had to dive out of the way... getting run over by it in the process... only to see his Jeep launch down the hill with his two young boys along for the ride.  It ended up sitting upside-down on the cage after hitting a tree hard enough to break off the top of it and flipping off of it back into the trail. 

The boys were pulled from the vehicle within moments by the guys that were helping with the recovery.  They were understandably upset and scared, but unhurt...  Thankfully. 

What began as a quick, easy trail ride turned into a a recovery.  The recovery turned into the worst nightmare for a parent, watching helplessly as your kids are in danger.  Fortunately, that gave way to the thankfulness that they were unhurt. 

Six hours after the call went out, the kids are in bed, the Jeep is in Pat's garage, and all of the participants are at home... keep in mind that it was more than two hours before the first of us could arrive on the scene to begin bringing everyone and everything back home...  And the trip back required two hours as well. 

But the most important thing to me is that our friends were eager to help in any way they could.  In the allotted time we could have had enough volunteers to carry the Jeep off the trail by hand.  All asked the same questions... Were the boys in the Jeep?  Are they OK?  Is Pat OK? What happened to the Jeep?  How can I help?  What do you need? 

My simple plan of enjoying dinner with the family, and then going to Bruster's with the neighbors to talk about how much fun our kids had at hockey camp... then spending a little time blogging and an early night was gone.  And I am SO thankful that the only real damage was to the Jeep... It can be rebuilt, and it will be...

There is a social networking lesson here... but that is for another time...