Photo Friday: Stuck in the Mud

Castle

Our anual tradition of heading to the cabin on Columbus Day weekend with my mom for visiting a corn maze was disrupted this year by our trip to Texas for Austin City Limits. Luckily, we were able to fit it in this weekend instead. I had been planning to make my Photo Friday post about the outing, but things did not work out as planned. So my Photo Friday is being posted on Saturday and about something different entirely.

For the past few years, we’ve been going to The River Maze in Benton, TN, in order to avoid the Atlanta crowds. Since the maze didn’t open until 5pm on Friday, we decided to head down to Lake Blue Ridge before driving up to Tennessee. And we now have a memory to last a lifetime. None of us will forget it.

In order to prepare for work on the TVA dam that created the lake, the lake is being emptied, revealing the lake bed for the first time since we’ve been staying in Blue Ridge. The eeriness of the landscape inspired the girls to create amazing fantasy stories as we explored and trekked down to the receded shoreline.

Girls on the Lake Bottom

Then the fun turned into a near disaster. Camille decided to rinse the mud off of her rainboots. I still don’t know what was going through her mind, but instead of beating a hasty retreat as she began to sink, she laughed and joked and kept sinking… until she was stuck fast. Chloe tried to help her, but couldn’t.

Stuck in the Mud

I panicked and went over to help her. My sandals were sucked right off my feet as I picked my way across the squelchy mud. Once I made it to her, I couldn’t pull her out. I fell backwards, sinking up to my knees. My dad then came to help. Camille’s stocking feet came out of her boots, and we had her move to safety. I managed to pull my leg out of the mud…. at that point, I had images of having to call for a rescue. Camille’s boots were still suctioned into the mud. My dad managed to dig underneath them to pry them out. Mud, mud, and more mud all over us and our clothes. The whole situation was too intense for me, and I was angry, disappointed, embarrassed and very, very muddy.

In the end, everything turned out okay, and we made it to the corn maze after going back to the cabin and getting cleaned up. I sure hope that Camille has learned an important lesson about the “quicksand” properties of mud! It’s a day we’ll never forget.

This is an entry for Delicious Baby’s Photo Friday.

Lake Blue Ridge

Dried Up Mud

Unhappy Chloe

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