LIFE :Just Dumb

I know this is not a shock to anyone who reads this ugly ramble that I spew out every day or so but I am just plain dumb.. I have mentioned several times that I can never really find my niche in the world of being an adult man.. I try hunting fishing or whatever but I just end up wishing I was getting a pizza and going to a movie..
Well my brother and Dad have both tried ATV out and have really enjoyed them. So we decided to go on a 4 wheeling weekend in the Iron Range.. (Special shout out to all my homies from Cloquet..) Everything worked great we met North of the city and headed up Friday night with 4 ATV's in tow.. We make great time park the trailers make our plans for the next day.. My Nephew SD and my Dad and I take jump in the sauna.. Not to self wood sauna seats and slippery bald man are not a good combination. People where staring in this little barrel in wonder as the dried wood bench creaked under the enormous weight.. But all went well we where ready to have a nice relaxing day trail riding.. We arrived at the course and once again I am out of place people are nice and everything else but the people at this course our doing wheelies and spinning donuts and revving up engines which is sort of scary but kind of gets your juices flowing.. This same thing usually happens to me when I smell food.
I am just setting the table of why the event occurred not making excuses for what happened next..
So I quickly cut off my new clothes tags of my manly clothes in an attempt to fit in with the crowd.. I should have just dived into the iron ore water puddled right there and it would have been perfect.. We all put our helmets since it was freezing cold with the plan of taking them off when it warmed up.. Once again dumb.. My brother was nice enough to borrow me his helmet which was an XL which I thought would fit over the giant planet I call a head.. It hurt like crazy but crammed it on and we took off.. I was shocked this is not a trail ride we are on it is in essence a stunt course for people that like to push there ATV's to the limit..And I am being led by 68 year old father who is bounding over these stone moguls like nothing.. So I join in and I start going over them it is a riot and I am just charged up there is puddles or little lakes that you have to avoid rocks and timber and you fly through them spraying this iron water all over it is surreal.. It is so rugged but this machines are amazing they bounce over and crawl over everything.. This course has drops of 50-100 ft that you would not believe you could which you can do with ease.. Your on edge the whole time your dogging trees bouncing over boulders and throwing mud all over the place.. I am having a blast I can't how much fun this is.. Even though about every 20 seconds I am scared out of my mind… But it is strange you kinda get lost in the moment you feel invincible on these things.. You don't feel like you have a torn veal.. And the playing field is leveled my Dad and my nephew are 50 years apart but they are both able to do the same things together.. Well enough of the fun part.. It is getting close to 11:00 and the big heavy needs to eat.. So my Dad says we should take a trail that gets us to the high ground so we can stop have a pop and eat lunch..
SD is our best driver so he leads then Me then Dad then my brother.. We see this signs on the trail that having a squiggly line on them.. If you don't know you should probably take a second to figure out what they mean. But hey we feel invincible my cow doesn't hurt we are all having a blast there is no trail we can't handle. This trail is steep,narrow,slippery,muddy and really throws you around but I have driven this thing for 2 whole hours I am an expert.. (dumbass) So SD being the reasonable one pauses at each turn to make sure it is Ok to keep going.. But I am really dumb because if he thinks he can do it why can't I.. The fact that my dad is behind me is completely lost.. You are in this really survival/testosterone laced mood .. So as we face this steepest most difficult trail I am dumber than usual.. I give SD the go ahead nod and he fires up the trail and he is bouncing and spinning all over but he makes it to the top.. It was scary to see but I am blinded but everything that happened previous and I hammer this huge 700cc four-wheeler up the trail. And I fly up this hill with blood in my eyes when I get to the top I feel as though I have just reached Everest. But just as I holler out like I had actually done something myself instead of riding this engineering dream up this slope.. It dawns that my father is behind me (Why didn't I think of him you dumb ass heavyd) I hear my brother yelling to my dad to not shift but keep going because he looked at this hill and said no way was he going to even attempt it..
5 seconds later I hear my brother yell out.. I need help.. Dad's hurt it is really bad.. Nothing hurts me anymore I leap off my atv and SD and I fly across the slippery slope down to my Dad.. My brother is right my Dads head is covered in blood and he is laying on his side saying that he broke his arm.. It has to be something worse he flipped the ATV twice all of the force came down on him and the only ground below contained nothing but sharp Rocks.. The ATV is crushed and laying upside down in the trail.. We are in the middle of nowhere my Dad is bleeding all over and we are in the middle of a trail with very few options to get down.. My brother and I quickly come up with a good plan to get him to an emergency room as quick as possible.. My Dad is tougher than nails and is as calm as anyone and he has the strength to hold his broken arm and shimmy down the hill we where trying to keep him awake and we did not want him to have the bone push through the skin so we did not put him on the back of an ATV to risk further injury... I am not sure how or why but we flipped his ATV back on its wheels bend the handles somewhat straight the big heavy was a wee jacked up.. Everything worked perfectly my brother was able to find flat ground and drive my dad back to our vehicles and get Dad to a hospital within 30 minutes of the accident happened..

My Dad ending up having a broken arm and needed stitched for his face but I was able to get him back to his home before night fall. His arm might require surgery but he is in great shape considering.. All because he had his helmet on was he able to survive..
I will never go on a trail like we did that day again.. But I will continue to take the nice safe trails from this day forward.. No moral to this story.. It is just simple when you ride a motorcycle or ATV or whatever wear a helmet.. Don't be stupid.. The ATV did not hurt my Dad poor judgment did.. When I look back on this if I would have just used my head we would have had a great weekend but you live and learn..

I will blog on the vikings later.. I don't have time to even look at this post it was just a straight upchuck of the events. I apologize to BS who struggles reading it daily I might call him and read it for him.