Snowmobiles and the Cabin

Did you know that it is no longer cool to call snowmobiles snowmobiles? Apparently, they are now referred to as "Snow Machines". Anyway, we just spent the greatest weekend at the Perkins Cabin in Clifton, Id. using those things. We have been planning this trip for several months, but we have been looking forward to this trip for a year, because we had to bag out at the last minute for the same trip last year due to my hectic school schedule and some illness.
We left earlyish on Saturday morning where we stopped in Logan to pick up Randy's brother, Royce's Snowmachine. We quickly loaded everything and got back on the road and arrived in Clifton around 11. We missed the turn off for the cabin so we had to go down another road and turn around. The road was completely iced over and even though we were only traveling about 10 mph, we couldn't stop at the stop sign. There was a ditch on one side and a main highway in front of us so we couldn't just slide out into the road so Randy tried his best to stop the car, but unfortunately the car jack knifed and hit the trailer! The rear bumper lost the reflector on the left side and cracked the hard plastic tire thingy, but we were thankful it wasn't any worse. After carefully freeing the car from the trailer and avoiding the ditch in the process, we put our happy faces back on and headed back to the turnoff. This lasted for about 100 yards when the car suddenly died! We pulled over and were unable to start it this time! We knew that the Perkins did not have cell service but that Dave Stout did, so we began calling him, but he was on the snowmobile and couldn't hear the ringer. This whole time, we just kept saying its Ok, everything will be fine, but with a dead car we were beginning to wonder. A nice man came along and offered to drive me up to the gate where the other families were carrying in their gear by snow mobile and then he went back and towed the Montero to his house where he said we could leave it! What a great guy Richard Ward of Clifton, Id. really is! Dave and I drove down to the car and then the three of us began unloading the snowmobile and all our gear so that we could unhook the trailer. We heave ho'd until we could push the trailer away from our car and hook it onto Dave's and then loaded up the kids. Once we got to where the other cars were parked we began shuttling everything into the Cabin. Randy stayed at the cars and called his brother Royce to see if he could bring a trailer to tow the car away. Royce has limitless connections and skills in the automotive dept. and within a couple of hours, he had come to pick up the car. He refused to let Randy come back to Logan with him to fix the car, insisting that Randy stay with us and enjoy our little vacation. This act of kindness brought tears to my eyes because Royce works out of town, and only comes home once or twice a month, and yet he was sacrificing his time with his family to fix our car. Meanwhile back at the cabin, Randy and Rob hiked up the mountain to turn on the water to the cabin. The place takes a while to heat up, so while Dave and Jonathan continued the shuttle service, Rhonda and I made lunch for the kids and played games while everyone kept their coats on. Rob and Randy were gone for a really long time and when they came back, the news was not so good. Somehow the water had frozen along the line and would never reach the cabin. No water for the weekend. A quick lesson on, " if it's pee, let it be and if it's brown flush it down ( with a bucket of creek water) became the mantra for the rest of the trip. Again, we kept saying, it is ok, we are still going to have a great time. Positive attitudes make all the difference! We played in the snow for a while and then had more games , then it was time for dinner. Rhonda and I began preparations and then we realized that the big jugs of extra water that had been stored at the cabin were frozen solid! It's Ok we said again , we'll just melt some by the fire and the furnace and it will be great! You would probably be surprised how long it takes to melt a five gallon jug of water! We just kept laughing and finally got the dinner made around 7ish. We played murder in the dark, signs, and this is a spoon with everyone in a big circle until it was time for bed. Then we hauled 13 mattresses from the upstairs, down to the main floor and set them head to head. It was so fun to sleep all together! We woke up around 8 to a beautiful view of the surrounding hillside and a gorgeous sunrise! Randy called Royce only to find out that the car was fixed, and he had driven it back to us and left it there around 2 in the morning! What a great brother! We had pancakes for breakfast and then we all got ready for a great day of snow play! When the men went out to start the snowmobiles, the pull cord broke on the one we brought to the other men took the kids to a field to sled while Randy played McGyver and used bent nails and some nylon rope off of a sled to repair our snowmobile. By the time that was fixed the kids were ready to change locations so we took the snow mobiles to a hillside to tow kids around and let them slide down the path toward the cabin! It was such a great day! Jonathan and Sawyer were the best of buddies, (Jonathan is 17 and a senior in high school) and all the other kids paired up beautifully as well! I took a tube down once and that was enough for me! They are super fast and I hated spinning around backwards so I couldn't see where I was going! Rhonda only needed one trip as well. We roasted hot dogs over the fire for lunch back at the cabin, and then the kids continued to play on the hill in the front yard and along the path! When they got cold, they would come in and play some games and then suddenly everyone would go back out! Around 4ish the grownups hopped on the machines and went trail riding above the cabin on these beautiful trails lined with pine trees and meadows. There was a great place for a lookout over the valley and we took each other's pictures there. When it began to get dark, we headed back.