The Triumph Takes a Tumble

First off, no one is hurt.

Scuffed up a little, but not hurt.

Karen and I went for a little afternoon ride and were having a wonderful time. As we pulled into Ely, Iowa, I was stopping at a stop sign and there was a bunch of gravel on the road. The back of the bike swung out and we landed on our left side. Karen’s foot was stuck under the bike but that was easily fixed, I just pulled up on it and she pulled her foot out. She had a small scrape on her hand and some strained muscles from wrenching herself around.

The motorcycle’s left foot peg got broken off and there was a little scuffing of the left hand grip but that may have been left over from Lance’s spill. Lance, yes, the gear shift lever got bunged up again too, but not broken off.

I came out the worst. My left forearm was scraped a bunch and my left ankle and calf too. Karen’s first words were, “Are you hurt?” Clearly I was banged up a bit, but nothing felt too bad. My foot was under the motorcycle too and as I pulled it out, my shoe came off. I recovered that as soon as we righted the bike. The strangest part was I have an achy pain in my left side. I think as we were going down, the handle bars hit me in the ribs. There is no scrape so it’s not from the pavement.

An older couple was driving by at the time and gave us a package of wet wipes to swab the scrapes with. That was much appreciated. Another younger guy stopped and helped get the bike set back upright and on the kickstand.

And another motorcyclist stopped and said he had had a similar problem at that spot. I may call the city and try to have them fix the area up.

We got the bike going and drove home. The worst part of that was I had to rest my left heel on the stub of the foot peg in order to shift the gears. Difficult, but not impossible.

When we got home, Karen washed out the scrapes and put peroxide on it to combat infection. The grazes were still fairly fresh and therefore traumatized. I had her coat them with Anbesol before I couldn’t stand it. After supper I had a couple of liquid analgesics, you know, to numb things up a bit.

As I write this, it’s bedtime. I think I will take a bunch of aspirins and try to see the doctor in the morning just to make sure everything is ok.

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This morning….

As Karen was leaving for work I went out and sat on the motorcycle. I leaned forward and turned the handlebars and sure enough, the left handgrip hit me right where my ache is.

I went to the doctor in the late morning. Everything was pretty much as I expected. He found no evidence of broken ribs and the scrapes were as expected. He did give me a tetinus shot because Heaven knows when my last one was.

So with the scrapes, bruises, and shot, I will probably be sore for a few days. Before you say anything, NO, we were not wearing helmets. We count our selves very lucky and I am both embarassed and contrite.