Epilogue

Now that I have returned home, my young son has seen me, my daughters and family have spoken to me, and my neighbors know I am safe, I need to clarify and update a part of my trip that I had purposefully left off.

On day five of my trip, with a mere 1500 miles under my belt, and out in the middle of nowhere-ville Wyoming, I had an occasion to meet the pavement.

Now let me just clarify here and now that it will sound worse than it was. The reality is that both myself and my bike were immediately able to pick up and go. And no matter how many people tell me I was "lucky" I will be the first to tell you that is not true, I was blessed - no if's, and's or but's about it.

There is a biker saying, that "if you hit the asphalt it is your fault, ass". I couldn't agree more and I accept full responsibility. I saw all the red flags, questioned the odd behavior and lack of working brake lights. I had made some adjustments but I also made the mistake of "presuming" and failing to react.

The bottom line is a vehicle stopped in the middle of the two lane highway, essentially parking, with no visible brake lights, and never having realized we were on the road. I anticipated his turning left because that was the only place he could go and I moved to the right half of the lane. Only he never turned and I never slowed. When I realized he was stopped without lights I began to brake. Unfortunately, there was still some sand near the edge of the road and my rear tire suddenly washed out, sending my bike sliding down the highway on it's right side. Once I realized the bike was down I pushed off, kissed the pavement, and rolled off into a ditch and then a field.

But I am here to tell you that it never hurt, that there was no pain even where perhaps there should have been. It was as though I landed in the hand of God and He then let me roll out of His hand until I rolled to a stop.

I came to a stop lying on my back. I quickly sat up, was surprised to feel no pain, and took off my helmet while watching Angel move my bike from the roadway, which I was so grateful for.

You should also know before I go on that I was wearing a full-face helmet, my mesh jacket with armor, jeans, boots and chaps. In fact, the only safety equipment I was not wearing was my gloves.

The first thing I did after removing my helmet was to look at my uncovered hands and comment that I hadn't broken a well manicured nail. Then I realized that my camera and phone were both in the chest pockets of my jacket. I pulled out the camera, saw it was fine, then pulled out my phone. When I realized it was undamaged as well I decided to send out a text.

About this time is when Angel came running over to check on me and was shocked at what I was doing. Unfortunately for her, she had been behind me and witnessed the entire incident and was greatly traumatized. So when she found me texting she told me I needed to quit "acting like a cop and act like a victim". I looked up, held up my hand as if saying stop, and told her "I don't do victim".

We waited and towed my bike "just in case" but the reality is it was ridable. Though the accident delayed us by four hours that day until we could make Gillette, it also held us up about six hours the next day before we were once again heading east. But what it didn't do was delay our trip by any more than those few hours.

No, I did not go to a hospital because I didn't need to. Yes, I was checked out by the paramedics. In fact, they had to tell me that my elbows were bruised because I hadn't noticed. Basically, my shins were bruised, my elbows were bruised, and I had a couple of small spots of road rash on my left elbow and right wrist where my jacket tore despite the armor.

But all I had wanted to do was get back onto my bike right then and there and continue our ride. However, it did make for a great road story during the rest of the trip.

And, heaven forbid, if it were to happen again I still would not tell my loved ones until I returned as the worry to them would not be worth it. And let me reiterate, I am fine, and I was fine at the time because I was in God's care.