Rogue River Vacation

Challenge Story from Write Anything
http://writeanything.wordpress.com/
500 words Fear Of Water

Rogue River Vacation
By
Larry Moon

Our family went on several camping outings when I was young. It was usually Mom and Dad's vacation time just before school started. One year, we went to the state of Oregon to camp at the Rogue River. We had been camping for about three days and the sun was particularly hot. We were all down on the river's edge, the older kids were in the water swimming and playing tag.

There was a huge rock sitting invitingly over the water's edge. Walking on top of the boulder, the urge to jump in, joining the rest of the family, was incredibly strong. And that is what we did. We'd suck some air into our lungs and jump. The water was cold and extremely deep. We loved swimming with Dad because he was fun to be with when he'd play water games with us.

We have a rather large family, there are eight of us children: counting Mom and Dad would make ten members of our family. There were several different times when we went on vacation that Mom and Dad would invite Grandma and "Red", our step grandpa. We always had a blast when we were all together at these fun family times.

Sherry, our youngest sister, who was only four years old, was watching all of us down below, in the river. The only two who weren't swimming at the time were Sherry and Mom. Well, little sister, Sherry, was wanting to be with us so badly that she gave the plunge a try. All of a sudden we heard a scream. We all looked towards the top of the rock and saw Mom jumping off. Mom didn't know how to swim, she only jumped in to save Sherry, who was now caught in rapids and being taken down river by the power of the Rogue.

Dad was always a great swimmer and when he saw Sherry he was, by the grace of God, in the perfect place to grab her out of the rapids. As she went passing by he plucked her out of the water as if she was a rubber floater toy. Sherry was safe in Dad's arms. Then he pushed Mom over to the river bank. What a great day of miracles that was.

Even though this vacation was well over thirty years ago, we still talk about it. Dad has now passed away, but we'll always remember how fast he was to the rescue when Sherry and Mom needed it. I'm sure that Mom loves her kids and she proved it to all of us more than once.

Sherry has gotten over her fear of water that she had for awhile and she's in the water all the time now.While growing up we went on several vacations as the one I just wrote about. We went to Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park and to the great Smokie Mountains in Tennessee.


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