What happened?

As any of you that live in our beautiful state know, the weather can change at any time. Rick and Mary were up at our cottage for the Labor Day weekend with their daughter Angela , her husband Tony and their children, Kelsey and Cal. Dale's parents, JB and Doris were also there.
 Well when we all woke up Saturday morning, it was pouring the rain, and we were bumming because we had planned to take the little ones swimming via ATV.

Soon the rain stopped and the sun came out, so we were on our way! There are some really great trails in Langlade county, most of which are on the roads through wooded areas. We went as far as Elcho, stopping for snacks and bathroom breaks. Our last stop was at the gas station in Elcho. While we were taking the windows out of JB's ranger, because he and Do were getting too warm inside the cab, Rick yelled out. "hey there's Bear!' We all turned and saw our friend and owner of the Thirsty Bear, Ray.  Rick paid for our gas with the kitty we had established and we left for the Deep Woods park.

Kelsey had been sitting on front of Angela on her ATV and had fallen asleep after we crossed HWY 45 into Summit Lake, so we all pulled over to the side of the road to transfer her into the Ranger with JB and Doris, so she could sleep more comfortably.

We continued a short way down the road until we came to a stop sign. Dale and I were the lead dog and Rick was our Caboose.  A black pickup truck was at the cross street so Dale waved them ahead because he didn't want to  hold them up as we putted along in our family filled caravan.

Once the truck had pulled out, we started up again and I thought I heard Angela yell my name and turned around to see Rick flat on his back in the middle of the street. I told Dale to turn around immediately to see what had happened.

 The ATV was on it's side and Rick was laying motionless in the road.  Tony, Dale and I acted as quickly as we could to stabilize Rick and I looked to my right and saw these three young men standing there asking us what they could do to help.  One told Tony he was a first responder and well trained to do whatever we needed.. Since Tony has been recently trained to be a Paramedic, this was the perfect storm of events to help Rick until the Emergency responders from Antigo could get to us.  We cannot thank you guys enough and I know that if anyone knows their names, Mary would like to thank you in person once again. You guys were AWESOME!


Rick was then helicoptered to Merrill where they had to land because the weather turned too rough to risk a flight, then he was taken by ambulance to Aspirus Hospital in Wausau.

The first 24 hours was intense and the staff wasn't sure if we were going to lose Rick or not. But we all know how hard that head of his is, and even with multiple skull fractures and some small amount of blood on his brain, he pulled  through.  He really has no other major injuries, nothing broken; some skinned knees and a cut on the bridge of his nose from those famous yellow Oakleys, he always wears.

I think that's enough details for now, all he needs right  now are the medical staff at the hospital, rest, and prayers from all of you.