Years ago....AT Patoka Lake.

I was fishing by myself, like I had a million times before. On this particular trip, I was in a little hurry, which probably lead to the whole incident.

We all have our processes for loading and unloading a boat by ourselves. Mine is the following. Tie a rope to the boat, and the hitch....then back down the ramp, hit the brakes and the boat slides off. Watch the boat as it slides off. Pull the boat up 10-20 ft, throw the truck in PARK, and slam on the parking brake. Then get out of the truck and grab onto the rope and pull the boat up to the ramp. Then go park the truck.

Well.....All went just as planned. I backed down, I braked, the boat came off as expected. The rope was TIED really good........I pulled up the ramp a little then threw the truck into park.....

Three things happened that normally don't happen. I failed to hit the parking brake........and I missed Park.

I jumped out of the truck, moved to the back to start pulling in the boat, when the truck rolled past me. I RAN to the door, and managed to Jump in. When I finally got the truck stopped, the Front wheels were in the water and water was GUSHING into the cab from the back doors. I tried to pull up the ramp, but crap.....it weighed way too much. I had to slowly pull up the ramp.

A few minutes later, I finally got the truck up far enough to get out and assess the damage.

Then I noticed the 3rd thing happened.........the dang rope broke. Now, my truck is full of water, I'm soaked, not to mention the 3 good ole boys on the hill laughing the ASSES off........My boat is nowhere to be found. I started looking around and saw it across the bay......floating in the wind.

I stripped down to my tighty whities, and swam after the boat.

When I got to the boat, I started it, drove back to the ramp, put the boat on the trailer, and went back home.

The good ole boys were still laughing........

Ask Brian Williams.......I'm SURE he was there.