The Airplane

Some folks have crazy things happen to them that they keep to themselves, fearing the tale will make less of them than they really are. Many of these stories are never told. I have had a wonderful time on this ride called life and I just want to share some of those memories.

About 30 years ago my Brother-in-Law Dick Vaux , my best friend Harold Park and I went on an Antelope hunt in the Little Lost River Valley of Idaho. The hunt was on a three day weekend.
As with any long awaited hunting adventure, the evening before is spent sharing stories of past hunts and the tales of other hunters. Needless to say the night is short and quite a lot of beer is consumed. The hunt was figured to be s short one since we had driven past scores of our prey on our journey to camp.
The opening morning of the hunt we opened the door of the camper to find in the dim predawn light an antelope standing no more than 30 feet from our door. By the time the ruckus was over running and jumping to retrieve our firearms, the Antelope was long gone.
We looked and looked for that Antelope until our eyes were crossed. It seemed to have manically vanished. Soon we were wondering if it was an illusion. Dick drove Harold's 1974 Trail Blazer aimlessly through the desert, stopping to glass with our binoculars each and every rock on the vast horizon. We drove around turn after turn on the dirt trail roads but we didn't see a thing. Mid Afternoon was approaching when we came around a corner in the road only to find ourselves face to face with an Airplane coming at us at full speed. He was taking off and the road we were on was his narrow makeshift runway.
Dick threw the gearshift into reverse and stomped his foot down putting the accelerator through the floorboard.. Clouds of rocks, dirt and gravel flew from our wheels as they spun. We were all screaming, looking at the turning propeller as it sped toward us. The Pilots eyes were as big as saucers. He was just as surprised as we were. Somehow he managed to pull the plane off of the ground. The Planes wheel hit the whip antenna from our CB radio. Somehow we were still alive. Our hearts were still racing as we skidded to a stop. We sat in silence no one daring to speak.
We didn't find an antelope that weekend but we did find a story to tell. We were very lucky that day.