My apologies for the delay in completing my R4WH blog. During the last week of the ride, I felt an urgency to spend more time with my old and new friends, so both my picture taking and blogging activities came to a halt.
What I remember from this day was my fall, which happened just four to five miles from our final destination at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, WV. The roads were slippery from active rain and we were speeding through a section of wooded curving roads. My riding group was Jess, Blair, and Amanda. Impressed with our pace, my eyes glanced down at the odometer on the handle bar, and I registered a speed of 20.something mph. A split second later I felt the crunch of loose gravel and instantaneously skid (skidded?) toward the shoulder railing. My jerk reaction turned the front wheel sharply left and that's when I knew I was going down.
It was a rather elegant crash, if I may say so myself. As I turned away from the railing, the physics of the moment caused my bike and I to become airborne. Try as I did to jump off my bike, the clips held on, and since the velocity of my torso and head was still to the right, when the front wheel veered toward the double yellow lines, as one unit the Rattler and I caught some air, tilted to the right, and bounced three times on the wet asphalt. I was fortunate in that I bounced, as opposed to slid, because I came out of that crash with only a strangely positioned forearm scrape, a bruised right hip, and a small scratch on the lateral aspect of the right knee. If you look at the forearm scar closely, you'll notice that there are no bony prominences where the scrape occurred, even with my arm fully extended. I was confused, and still am, as to how my elbow survived a 20-mph crash with nary a scratch.
The local hospital hosted us for dinner and we felt like royalty at a banquet. E&D College provided us with generous lodgings, and I even got a room to myself in one of the dormitory pods. Three-course dinner, strong WiFi, firm mattress, comfortable air conditioning...couldn't ask for more. What made my day however, was when Blair and Amanda came back from a grocery run that evening and brought me not only Neosporin but also a personal sized thing of Hรคagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream, my favorite. I'm blessed to have such friends :)
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Wednesday 30 May 2012 ~ Elkins, West Virginia to Petersburg, West Virginia
Today was my "punishment" crew day as I was MIA during the Columbus Solidarity Ride. Not a bad way to go after my little crash from the day before.
Tried to capture the low-lying faint clouds. WV has gorgeous greenery, which is saying a lot coming from a guy who grew up in the Emerald City.
Amusing story here. I opted to drive the Budget and mark the route, so I arrived in Petersburg before noon. Earlier that morning, Laura had given me the address and contact information for the church that was hosting us. But search as I did, even with my smart phone, I couldn't find the First Baptist Church on Harrison Street. So I call the number Laura gave me. Lady answers, doesn't seem to be expecting a group of 20 cyclists, gives me the cross street as Liberty Street, and I tell her I can find it now, no problem. Ten minutes later, I'm more than baffled. According to my phone, Petersburg, WV has neither a Harrison nor a Liberty Street. Hmmm... I call again. Same lady answers. "Ma'am, I still can't locate your church. Do the streets have more than one name?"
"Honey, we've been on Harrison and Liberty since the beginning, only one First Baptist Church of Petersburg in Petersburg, Virginia."
"Petersburg, Virginia?!"
"Yes..."
"I do apologize. I'm in Petersburg, WEST Virginia. Very sorry to have bothered you."
FBC of Petersburg, WV ~ Dinner place settings.
In the end, everything worked out. There actually was a FBC of Petersburg in WV, and it was on Virginia Avenue, go figure. And Laura did contact the correct FBC, so we had a place to sleep that night. They also made us dinner, above and beyond what we were expecting.
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Thursday 31 May 2012 ~ Petersburg West Virginia to Front Royal, Virginia
Forgot my camera today :(
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Friday 01 June 2012 ~ Front Royal, Virginia to Washington DC
The forecast for our final true riding day was scattered thunderstorms with increasing probability as the day progressed. I brought my camera along, but it was difficult to access through the double zip-lock bag. Somewhere along the route I made a regrettable decision to bypass the trouble and just take pictures tomorrow, Saturday. Thus, no pictures again.
But there is a story. As we neared the District of Columbia, we noticed the darkening skies and ominous clouds, and soon felt the first drops of rain. If you recall from one of my earlier entries, I don't do well with cold and wet. But today was warm and wet. And wet it was! We biked into the middle of a torrential downpour that made it hard to breath as water would come in with the air whether we were breathing by nose or mouth. Visibility at times was maybe 20 feet and that was AFTER I removed my sunglasses. Six of us in that group: Coulter, Skylar, Jessie, Blair, Amanda, me. None of us had biked in such rain before. The roads turned into shallow streams and our bikes became squeaky clean. Free bike wash :)
We soldiered on, picking up the pace in an attempt to minimize our time in the rain. Eventually the tropical downpour diminished to a light drizzle, and we had a few sun breaks mixed in as we entered the capital. Eight months earlier I had driven across the Potomac on my way to Walter Reed. Now I was biking across the very same bridge, toward Constitution Avenue and the Lincoln Memorial. We did it. Some 50 odd days after leaving the beaches of San Diego, we were in our Nation's Capital.
Saturday Morning, 02 June 2012, Lincoln Memorial
Amazing, Daniel. Congrats and well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil!
ReplyDelete