GLENDALE, Ore. — Watching a small black-and-white television while snowbound in their 35-foot recreational vehicle, a family that had been trapped for two weeks saw that the search for them had been called off.
It was time for them to do something about leaving the mountains of southwest Oregon. Two of the six family members, Peter Stivers and his wife, Marlo Hill-Stivers, decided to look for help.
"We had fuel and food, but we were running short; we were rationing," said Elbert Higginbotham, Stivers' stepfather, who lived in Heber, Ariz. A hard freeze of the snow made it easier to walk, and the decision was made.
The couple left Monday and were found early Tuesday. Rescuers then located the RV and the four others, including the couple's two children.
All were reunited Tuesday afternoon in this southern Oregon community.
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Stivers and his wife ran to a van as it pulled into town with the two children and Stivers' mother and stepfather.
"I love you baby," Marlo Hill-Stivers told her daughter, Gabrayell, 8.
"I love you too, mommy," she replied.
Peter Stivers rested his hands on the shoulders of his 9-year-old son, Sabastyan.
"He had fun. They enjoyed it," Peter Stivers said. "They didn't know we was in trouble."
The family had vanished after leaving Ashland on March 4 for a quick trip to the Oregon coast. Their trouble started on the way back.
"We thought we'd take the scenic route," Higginbotham said.
But it turned out to be a little too scenic.
"Every time we took a corner, it seemed like we took a wrong corner," he said.
At one point, the RV slid off the road. The family tried to hand-dig the RV out of 4 feet of snow, but could not. The family sustained itself on the dehydrated food they had loaded for the trip. They had enough propane to keep the RV heated.
The days passed. The two children spent the evenings reading jokes from the Reader's Digest to the adults.
Higginbotham described himself as a survivalist, used to living in Arizona with no electricity or running water.