Some Excitement Down By The River.....

Here is a video I took tonight of the ice breaking on the river. I had just gotten out of the shower when my roommate told me that the ice was breaking and did I want to go check it out. Of course I did! I threw on some clothes and we walked down...I wasn't sure what to expect.

Break up happens very quickly I found out. By the time we got down there, the ice was moving very quickly! By the way, the video was shot about 9:30 p.m. and we are 20 hours of daylight right now.

So many people were out watching. There was a level of excitement, even from those who had watched the river breaking up their whole lives. It was exciting and fun. All along the river bank, there were groups of people standing and watching. At one point, even a dog ran out over the ice.

But there was one scary moment. A group of hunters had gotten stranded on the other side of the river. They had their boat with them and we were watching them try to find a safe path back to the bank. The police were trying to help get them over. There was open water on one side of the bank and on the other side, but in the center of the river, the ice was still frozen over....

So in order to get back to the other side of the river, those men had to drag their boat over the ice. And we watched them. My camera could zoom in pretty close and I could make out what they were doing.

But I realized, if one of the them fell through the ice, they would be under that ice and the current would just take them down....and it hit me: right at this moment, I could watch someone die.

And then one of the hunters wive's pulls up on her four-wheeler and says, "That's my husband." I turned to look at her and that's when I realize: yep, I know the hunters. I could be watching while someone I know falls through the ice. You could tell the boat was heavy....and I couldn't take my eyes off of them. I didn't want to watch this, but I couldn't move. All I could do was pray for them.

Suddenly, I hear "Oh no!" and a woman's gasp. Thankfully, it was just a 3rd grader falling in the river on our side. He went in about knee deep and was okay. But seriously, when ever would I think it was "just" a kid falling in the water. Oh yeah, when you are watching men do something truly dangerous....

But they made it back into their boat just as the boat hit water. And then we watched them drive the boat through an opening to our side of the bank...

Whew! You know, I'm okay not watching anything like that again any time soon!