Mickey and I set out on July 6th for our NC beach vacation and motorcycle road trip. The first part of the trip was great. We had perfect riding weather and no traffic issues. We spent the first night with my sister and then headed to beautiful Atlantic Beach where my Mom and step-father have a timeshare. After three days there we packed up the bikes again and headed to Winston-Salem. We stopped in Raleigh to have lunch with a friend of mine and thats where the whole trip took an unexpected and painful turn.
I completely mis-judged a turn in a parking garage, hit the throttle when I should have hit the brake and slammed into a concrete wall. It was completely un-glamorous and completely rider error. My knee hit a curb when the bike went down and I broke my upper tibia in four places. The good news is that because of having good riding gear that is my only injury. The bad news is that it is a hell of an injury and required surgery.
I won't go into my NC hospital adventure except to say that overall I can recommend Wake Medical Center as a pretty good place to be injured. Oh, and that ambulances don't fit into parking garages and that presents several special problems that can significantly delay the arrival of EMS.
Having a motorcycle related injury is sort of a weird experience. Number one, I'm pretty embarrassed about how it happened. I feel like I'm a much better rider than that and hate that I made such a dumb mistake. The weirdest thing is telling people how you got hurt. As soon as you say "motorcycle accident" people get a funny expression on their face and you can almost hear the "What do you expect since you're involved in such a dangerous activity.." in their voice. I suppose that's fair enough and the chances of you being injured on a bike are greater, but it's an uncomfortable feeling nonetheless.
And so friends and neighbors, I will be spending the rest of the summer and a bit of the fall on crutches, wearing a fashionable leg brace. I had to drop my summer class and I'm a little worried about keeping up with my other art related commitments but I'm optimistic or perhaps that's the narcotics talking.....