78th ride

This morning's ride was one of rather mixed results. I set off early to do my last long preparatory ride before my plans to ride 42 miles to Mom's next Saturday, and figured I'd do the Chelsea round trip again today, as I did on June 8. I very nearly made it, too, but the ride did not end so well—I'm absolutely fine, however, and thank God for His protection and care.

I had wanted to leave at 6:00 a.m., but was mildly dismayed to be unable to get away until 6:15. Pushing doggedly onward, however, I enjoyed the early morning quiet, riding westward through the small town of Dexter and then onward to Chelsea. I missed the unmarked Freer Rd. again, but then, as I neared the city, realizing what had happened, I turned left onto McKinley and started heading south and east by dead reckoning, figuring that eventually I'd have to hit either Old US 12 or Freer. Sure enough, after a few minutes of riding through the sleepy streets (before 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday) in the 'presidential' section of Chelsea (I remember riding on McKinley, Madison, and Washington, and saw several others), I came to where Washington met Freer, turned right on Freer, and was back in business.

My left thumb is still stiff and unusable from where I sprained it upon jamming it into the ground when I fell on June 14, but this did not prove a hindrance to riding; I merely kept it tucked up, fairly "dead" and useless, against my fist, resting atop the left hande grip.

On the way back, about 4 miles from home, I had an "exciting" mishap. I think there were two reasons for it. First, and primary, there is a long, pretty dramatic, largely unrelieved climb in elevation as you travel south on Wagner Rd. from Jackson Rd. clear up to Scio Church. I knew this, and should have shifted to the smaller chain wheel sooner than I did. Another factor was a mechanical one. When I got home, Michelle noted that my left pedal is unhooked and we'll have to take that in later today and get it repaired. I said, "I think that may be why I fell." She replied, "It probably happened when you fell." But, even though my memories of the event are somewhat foggy, I believe I recall it coming unhooked and this contributing to my loss of control. At any rate, whether that happened or not, I was really spent from the big hill climb, and began wobbling severely just after I got south of Liberty on Wagner, and ended up going down.

I always wear my helmet, but it did not protect my nose from grinding into the pavement when I pitched over face first, and the dripping blood that resulted (on the ground, my legs, hands, arms, and face) made quite a mess. I was blessed by the almost instantaneous stopping of two Good Samaritans (first a women of about 40, and then a man in his early thirties). They insisted I go over and sit down in the grass well away from the road, and retrieved my bike for me, and then insisted on calling a Huron Valley Ambulance. I was glad to be wearing my Road ID bracelet, which gives my name and contact information and also explains that I hear fine but can't speak.

The man helped me to retrieve my cell phone from the basket on my bike, and I then placed the call I had been dreading, asking Michelle if she could come pick me up. I knew she'd probably freak out when she pulled up and saw an ambulance there.

When the ambulance arrived, I wanted to be able to tell the attendants that I work at Briarwood Firestone, and we service their vehicles—but, of course, I couldn't. The attendants needed to provide no medical care (though I had to sign a waiver saying that I chose not to go to the hospital), but they did very helpfully provide me with some wipes to clean up, and then stayed with me until Michelle arrived, and walked the bike over to our car and explained the situation to her.

This gave me a ride of 32 miles, and I don't know the exact time, because, naturally, all thought of stopping my watch when I fell was abandoned. However, from the time I saw on it just a few minutes before, when I turned onto Wagner from Jackson, I believe my ride was just about an even 3 hours.

So, anyway, in light of this, I have no idea whether I will be allowed to carry out my plan to ride to Mom's next Saturday. I hope so—but it would certainly be understandable to me if Michelle says NO. I do continue to learn, incrementally, from each of these episodes—and I do always pray before riding, thanking God for the opportunity and asking for His protection, and I am more grateful for that protection than I can express!

AFTERWORD

When we took my bike to the shop for repair on Saturday afternoon, they said that past trauma (falls) had caused the pedal to give out and explode, and they replaced the pedals with new ones free of charge. I was grateful to find out that it was a mechnical issue, rather than me just being too tired to climb that big hill, as this latter hypothesis had puzzled me, since I climbed it successfully previously (June 8), and was certainly unaware of being particularly tired on this occasion.