Jeep Ride

Camp meeting was always the high point of my summer. It meant being with friends meeting new friends and having a great time running around the camp ground. For a pastor's kid there was camp pitch which was a week before camp meeting when the pastors got together to set up and prepare the camp ground. All the kids would join different crews and pitch tents, deliver beds and mattresses,or clean the cabins. There was never a dull moment with this crowd, pastors without their flocks make for a pretty hysterical gathering.
On one particular day as our crew was ferrying mattresses, we watched as the camp's army surplus jeep got a new coat of bright green paint. At the end of the day we walked pass that jeep shinny and green, what a temptation! One of the pastors said,
"lets go for a ride." We all piled in three pastors and four boys and off we went four wheeling, up and down the hills through the woods. We were working our way up one steep hill and had almost made it to the top when the jeep stalled. A quick attempt to restart failed, and a frantic pump of the brakes told us that the jeep needed more than a new coat of paint. That is when things started to move fast, Behind us was a large curtain of mansanita brush, we flew through that with a snap crackle and pop and as it parted we saw one huge ponderosa pine dead ahead. The pastor sitting at the back grabbed two of the boys and on impact took them over the side of the jeep and away from the tree. The rest of us we stayed with the jeep because we had something to hang on to. Everyone climbed out to survey the damage, with the exception of one scratch we were all fine, but we had a jeep that wouldn't start, had no brakes, a flat front tire, scratched green paint, and a crumpled rear end. It was a long quiet walk back to supper.
The next morning as we started work we saw "our" jeep with the back end chained to a tree, being driven forward and slamming to a halt, then back again in an attempt to straighten out the damage.