2009-07-24

Well, at least this is a shorter post than the wedding post.

One day before my honeymoon on Martha's Vineyard I took a motorcycle ride with the Mystery Riders, a motorcycle club that basically goes from ice cream stand to ice cream stand rather than bar to bar.

They are mostly middle aged and I fit right in. I have a small 250 Honda Rebel that is no good for highway speeds so when they go back roads I join them.

This Sunday, the 5th of July, was a ride through Miles Standish State Forest. They wanted to test how a poker run they were planning would go. I hate the forest because the signs are horrible and I always get lost but I figured that I had all these peole with me and I'd be alright.

I wasn't paying much attention and was distracted by the pretty scenery. The speed limit was only 35 mph and we were traveling at exactly that rate.

Suddenly I drove over a hill and about 8 bikes were stopped in front of me. My options were to (1) run into the oncoming car in the other lane (2) crash into my girlfriend and her brand new bike in front of me. (3) Lock up the brakes and take whatever happens.

So I locked up the brakes, but I only hit the front brake. God I wish Karen was still here to laugh at this and call me an idiot.

The facts are that I never even touched the back brake and I locked up the front wheel. I skidded a few feet on the front tire as the back wheel rose up off the ground. Then the front wheel hit a divot in the pavement and twisted and I was airborne a second later.

I fell on the pavement and slid about ten feet. I knocked the air out of me and it was about a minute before I was breathing normally but my right arm felt strange.

I gave my bike to a friend that was riding on the back of someone else's bike to drive home for me and I jumped on my brother's bike and he took me to the hospital.

Sure enough I had a broken collar bone. Later it turned out that I had a cracked rib also and a heck of alot of bruising.

It was Sunday and the next day,Monday, Fred and I had reservations for us and our car to go over to Martha's Vineyard. The hospital has their bone clinic mornings at 5:30 AM. I had to come back the next day and the doctor asked me if I wanted a bump or a scar and he assured me that most of these injuries healed just fine with only a sling.

We had reservations at Woods Hole for the ferry for our honeymoon at 2:00 PM that very day.It was only 8 hours away. An operation would make me miss that so I chose the sling and off we went.

Poor Fred kept mumbling, "This is wrong. I'm supposed to be helping you out of your clothes, not into them." He had to dress me and shower me and open my door and help me out of cars and sometimes even chairs. I had to sleep in a seperate bed as any rolling around would make the bed shake and be painful.

We still managed to have a good time but whoopee wasn't part of it.

BTW I bought my first "real art" painting over there for 400 dollars. I'll post a picture when it gets delivered but that won't be until August 4th because I'm going to Nova Scotia and Bar Harbor Maine until August 3rd. I leave today. I'm so excited!


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Collar Bone