Greetings one and all. For those who follow me or have happened upon the page through what I would like to think is some good fortune, you will notice that the last tour was August of 2016….. and then…. cue the crickets, nothing. Well the reason…
My wife began riding 2006 because she far and away preferred riding her own bike then the thought of getting on the back of mine and who could blame her. We had done several day trips and some over nighters and were looking forward to many years of longer tours in our retirement. Alas on a sunny September morning of 2016 while riding to work a van pulled from a side street across her path and she avoided the van but went down. I raced the scene which was only a few blocks from the house and found her being loaded into an ambulance. She appeared no worse for wear. She’s pretty damn tough with a high pain threshold and she said she thought her right shoulder was dislocated and her left leg was a bit sore but only had a small dime sized abrasion.
Ah appearances, its true what they say, they can be deceiving, turns out it was a bit more significant. What was actually on the menu was a dislocated right shoulder and an accompanying serving of fracture humeris but the main course was a shattered tibia and fibula which caused compartment syndrome, something we only learned of once the surgeon finally saw her several hours after arriving at the hospital. He assessed her situation and advised she would require immediate surgery. The last thing he said as they headed into surgery was “okay lets go see if we can save that leg”. I recall thinking that was some very odd bedside manner, I didn’t know he wasn’t kidding.
Fast forward to now after 4 years, 5 surgeries, a s – – t ton of physio and she has made a spectacular recovery which has exceeded the surgeons expectations. That is the best outcome we could have hoped for, well almost, the surgeon highly recommended she not ride again. Her motorcycle turned into a convertible and although she misses riding, she is quite happy.
As a result my touring took a backseat and was reduced to small day trips the past few years with the exception of one 5 day tour, with 4 other riders, of the Blue Ridge Parkway area in 2019.
That pretty much catches us up ……. almost, after 13 years of riding Honda ST’s I have acquired a new ride for 2021 in an attempt to reignite or mix things up a bit. We have relocated our residence to a more rural setting which offers a lot more gravel road experiences so if nature and government permit I will be doing some riding ……. stay tuned.