Kosydor Adventures

JACKSON COUNTY, Ill. - What started out as a fun filled afternoon of 4-wheeling through the Shawnee National Forest, ended abruptly when the teens crashed into a frozen pond. The sun was setting on Super Bowl Sunday when Ron Kosydor’s 15 year old son smashed through the ice into waist deep water.

“The first thing I asked him was if he was all right? Then are you guys wet? How many of you are wet? Are any of the 4-wheelers able to run and get out of the water,” Kosydor said.

One of the other boys called his parents for help too. And they called 911.

Ambulances and Sheriff’s Deputies from Jackson County responded. They found the boys at the far end of a trail along the Big Muddy River, in an area known as Horse Shoe Pond.

“It’s not really a pond. But when the river backs up, it fills in a low lying area. And there is lots of weeds out there. And it was snow covered. That was part of the problem, they couldn’t really tell it was ice,” Kosydor said.

The boys, ages 15, 16, and 17 were all shaking from the cold and their soaking wet cloths they were wearing, by the time family members arrived on the scene.

“They were real glad to see the warm trucks. And I told them leave the 4-wheeler, get out of the water. We can come back for it,” Kosydor said.

His son’s 4-wheeler is going to need a major overhaul before being able to run again. But Ron is just happy his son is safe, and so are his friends.

“If they would have went off into some deep water, it could have been a fatal situation,” Kosydor said.

None of the boys required hospital treatment for exposure. It’s a chilling reminder to us all, that no matter how thick the ice may look. It still may not be safe to play on, or ride on.

Nothing like hanging at the lake with friends and family.  A little spilled barbecue sauce and some potato salad sure makes for a fun day.

Top Deck is Katy Kosydor, Eli Snodgrass, and Zachary Kosydor

It was a nice day at the camp ground on Sunday. We spent the day on the beach, Susan, Kelli, Mike, Ron, Andrea, Katy,Taylor, and Zachary. We rode our Seadoos in the sun . It was getting around 4:00 so we headed to the camper. The sky was looking bad like it was going to rain so we got everything in the camper. We were watching the news and there was a tornado warning for Carbondale and other parts in the Southern county. Grandma Marge called Ron at 6:00 to tell him the storm was coming for us. Andrea’s Dad Mark was calling her and keeping her updated on the storm also. Ron and Mike were saying it will miss us we will just have a thunder storm, were they wrong or what? Susan and Andrea knew better, they wanted to be safe than sorry, so they took the kids, Kelli, Katy, Taylor, and Zach to the John A. Logan College to take shelter. Right when we were leaving we saw the state troopers telling people they want to evacuate the camp ground. People were trying to push in the shower houses to take shelter! The tent campers were out of there! We were turned to go to John A. Logan College and we looked behind us and we saw a funnel cloud! SCARY!! We ran inside to the college, and some people from the camp ground were already there taking shelter with their dogs, while ours were with Ron and Mike at the Camper. The kids were scared while we stay there for a hour. Andrea called Ron and ask him if he was doing ok and he said, “I’ve blown into the lake and a catfish ate my eyeballs.” hahahah!………! What really happened is the wind shook the campers really hard thats all! Then a Security guy told us the first storm was over, but there is another one coming a couple hours away just as bad as the first one! So we went back to the camper and seen if Mike and Ron survived. They did and everybody and everything was safe! It was raining the rest of the night and the other tornado never came!!☺ We all SURVIVED!!!!!!!!!

Yes it sucked. 5 year old Zachary was released from Carbondale Memorial on Tuesday Morning. Guess where I spent my holiday weekend. Continue Reading »