Up and Down El Rio Blanco

In my humble opinion, women are God’s greatest creation. I believe this to be true for many reasons, with the ability to create life being at the top of the list.I’m blessed to be surrounded by God’s greatest creation: my mom, my sisters, my wife, my daughters, granddaughter, nieces and those I work with. Everyone in the office here at the Herald Times is of the female persuasion, expect for Caitlin’s (Walker) son Talen. Although he counts, he’s only a couple months old and not on the payroll, yet. Everyone at my wife’s store and our coffee shop are beautiful females.Women are intelligent, resilient, will do anything for their kids and they can adapt to and overcome many difficult situations. One of my coworkers, Tonya Morris, has had to do just that. I think Tonya, who is our production person (she creates and builds most of our ads, lays in all the ads, editorial and photos and is our resident IT person, too), epitomizes my opinion.Tonya’s son Trey was asked to play on a Colorado all-star basketball team in a tournament in Columbus, Ohio this month. Tonya booked a flight and the two drove to Denver July 17. According to Tonya, they were put on standby and “bumped” from 15 flights before they decided to drive to Ohio.While driving through Kansas in 100-plus degree temperatures, their air conditioning went out. They stopped to get it fixed which made them late arriving in Ohio. The hotel they were registered in had rented out their room and they had to find another one late at night.Tonya spent the same amount of time in the gym as Trey. She watched all his games, and there were many, including a tournament at the end.They drove back to Colorado and stayed in Denver Sunday night, only to leave at 4 a.m. Monday morning to get Trey to Grand Junction where he had qualified to play in the ACE golf tournament series finals. Tonya’s husband, Todd, met them in Rifle that morning with Trey’s golf clubs and Trey teed off at 10 a.m. Tonya said Trey, understandably, didn’t play very well.After returning to Meeker later Monday, Trey went to open gym at the high school to play basketball and injured his ankle, requiring a trip to the emergency room for X-rays to rule out a broken bone.Tuesday, around 11 a.m., Tonya received a phone call from her daughter, Taylor, who was with her dad and said they had been in a car accident on their way back from Craig, approximately six miles from Meeker.Tonya went to the accident site and followed the ambulance that transported her husband to Pioneers Medical Center. Doctors determined that Taylor had broken her wrist, while Todd needed to be transported to St. Mary’s via ambulance. He has  compression fractures in his lower back that will require him to be hospitalized for two days and wear a back brace for up to six months.I know God has given Tonya the strength to care for her injured family, less than two weeks from the Rio Blanco County fair, in which both Trey and Taylor are very  involved. Godspeed, Tonya!