Wild Horses provide a picturesque background for this photo of PC Singles Club members Jackie Havranek and Rosemary Vana during one of the more peaceful moments of their recent tubing trip on the Salt River.
Pat Milich
Skies were grey that early September day when five fearless female members of the PebbleCreek Singles Club ventured out into the Lower Salt River rapids in beautiful Tonto National Forest near Mesa.
Conversation during the car ride to the river mostly centered around the phone calls from overprotective offspring intent upon lecturing parents about the bad consequences of making age-inappropriate decisions. Peggy Kuffner’s son came across as being the most vocal about his displeasure with his mother’s decision to risk life and limb floating down a river in a rubber tube.
There were lots of laughs on the car ride to the river, remembering the times those same offsprings ignored pleas from parents who feared for their safety and well-being. Paybacks are hell they all agreed; confident that despite bad knees, back problems and other ailments there was no need for their kids to get all up in a tizzy because a group of adventuresome ladies wanted to experience the chills and thrills of a floating picnic on cool and refreshing mountain stream waters.
Peggy Kuffner was elected to carry the car keys. It was an important assignment since everyone had traveled in one car and left valuables locked in the trunk. Peggy had typed up an ID tag with her phone number and advising in event of an emergency to call her son in Phoenix.
Rosemary Vana and Judy Shaffer, both experienced rapids rovers, silently observed the river was higher and the current faster than usual. They started to worry about Jackie Havranek and Nevin Nelson. The swirling current might pose a problem for them. But they worried most about Peggy, suddenly remembering last year when she missed her dismount at the docking area and went floating out of sight. Thankfully, her tube was intercepted and she was escorted back to the group. I think it might have been about this time that Rosemary began to question her decision to give Peggy the car keys.
And then it happened. Peggy tumbled out of her tube and the swift current snatched the bag from around her neck. In seconds it disappeared. It was a forlorn group that came to terms with the fact that the car keys were gone and the price to have a locksmith make a new one was a whopping $340
Meanwhile, a couple fishing miles away found Peggy’s bag and the note to call her (oh no!) son. Waiting for the locksmith they heard someone paging Peggy. It was her son calling to tell her the keys had been found. He did not sound happy and told her he would be calling again that night.
On the way home everyone talked about the Miracle on the Salt River and how unbelievable it was that someone had actually found those keys! What were the chances? The unsinkable Peggy Kuffner was quiet. She was thinking about the Singles Club tubing trip next year and how she was going to break it to her son that she had every intention of going!