I’m lat today, I had to run to Walgreens for Becker. Seen a lot of sleds coming from Ironwood and the trail looked flat as can be. * east of Bergland heading to Ewen is the worst trail I have heard of. It is just thin on snow and very rocky.

Shout out to Anna Banana, congratulations on getting your Nurses License. 

My father ladies and gentlemen…

So, when we were younger we used to run a single line off the back of one of the snowmobiles, put a splitter on her with two lengths of ski rope about 25′ long, gear up with helmets and suits, and throw two guys on on those flying saucers, (you know, like the ones on National Lampoon’s Vacation) and then the sled driver would just “giver” down some snow covered back roads.

Holding the rope with one hand you could steer the saucer by leaning. Object of the game was to knock the other guy off, preferably when he was on or near what were sometimes 10′ embankments of ploughed snow at the side of the road.

Hell of a lot of harmless fun for the most part, until one day it went bad.

Paul and I had been bashing the hell out of each other for a while, and no one was coming off. I came at him quickly from my side of the road and made the initial impact with him just seconds before an old Ford Econoline “shagging wagon” with the classic big ole cb antenna on it, came round the bend in front of us.

Long enough story short, I managed to stay over in our lane behind the sled, but as fate and all the timing that goes with it would have it, the van came even with us just as Paul bounced up the embankment, off a tree, and flipped over, on the wrong side of the road.

Again, in a horrible twist of fate, he came down near the top of the van’s windshield, and the motion of the impact basically impaled him on the antenna that was jutting up from the top of the van.

He survived the initial impact but later died in hospital. His blood system was poisoned by some ailment related to the dead insects that had beat him to the antenna.

Maybe if he had had a flak jacket on he might have made it.

Be careful out there folks. We all did some pretty risky stuff when we were younger.

Wear protection.

No one wants to die from a van aerial disease…..