1st Retirement RV Ramble 2024
3 weeks / >5000 miles - Part Three
May 16, 2024
We welcomed the first day of our trip that Kerouac would remain off the road and we would enjoy a day catching up with our friend Shane. We decided to visit some Pueblo ruins in a park that straddles the Colorado/Utah border. We hopped into Shane’s truck and headed there. Hovenweep National Monument was unlike anything I’d seen before. It was amazing to see the remains of their stone structures and the vegetation in the park. We hiked some and took a slew of photos. I headed back to the visitor center when the path got too challenging for me, the guys hiked on a bit further then came back to the center with tall tales of how far they’d gone and what lizards had chased them. You’d think I’d have learned to detect their BS by now, but you’d be wrong. 😅 Here are some shots from Hovenweep. https://www.nps.gov/hove/index.htm
After leaving Hovenweep, on the drive back to Shane’s place, we happened upon a biker stopped in the opposite direction lane and we slowed down to see if he needed help. And that answer was a huge yes! His partner was upside down under his Valkyrie bike in the ditch. We pulled over immediately to assist, my stomach dropped thinking he surely must be severely injured, if indeed still alive. I stayed in Shane’s truck as I knew I would be no help, and I took some photos and a short video of what transpired next.
Thankfully, the fellow was coherent, talking, and said all that really hurt was his foot which was pinned under the bike. He said he hit a pothole and lost control, going too fast on the curve. How exactly he ended up facing the way he’d come from with the bike on top of him is anybody’s guess. The guys set about helping him get out from under the bike and discovered the waistband of his pants was hooked over the bike’s footpeg. They tried with all their strength to get it off the peg, but his body weight was actually suspended from that and they turned to plan B, pocketknife. Mind you, this guy was not short or small in any way. Rick carefully cut the guy’s pants until he dropped free from the footpeg. Next was to lift the bike off his foot. Another couple in a truck came along, stopped, and the fellow joined our rescue effort. Shane and Rick lifted the bike while the other fellow carefully moved his leg out from under. To all their surprise, they could detect no broken bones yet. All this while, his biker friend watched from the roadside, not assisting, which I found odd but maybe he was in shock too. We’re not sure how long they had been waiting on help when we came along, but Rick said the bike’s muffler was cool enough to touch so it had been a bit.
The fellow asked our guys to help him out and up, so they grabbed him under the arms and pulled him slowly to a sitting position on the side of the ditch. They offered him some water, kept him talking, and tried to assess if he was really okay or in shock and not realizing his injuries. He sat for a bit then asked for help to stand. They lifted him to his feet for about a minute then he started to sag so sat down again to rest a bit more. Another fellow came along in a jeep and the guys asked him to help pull the bike out of the ditch. They hooked up a pull rope and came up with a plan to pull the bike back onto the road. Shane, Rick, and the first helper fellow got the bike on its wheels and the biker friend set up in between the jeep and the bike along the tow rope to let the jeep driver know when to pull forward. By this time, the injured fellow was on his feet and observing. The bike was soon back on the road and to everyone’s disbelief, the injured biker climbed aboard to assess if it was rideable!? He went down the road a little way and circled back. The bike was blowing exhaust but he said he thought it would make it back to safety. At this point we were all incredulous that what we first thought might well have been a serious tragedy, was turning out to be an incredibly lucky accident. We wished them well and went on our way.
We all took a needed rest for the remainder of the afternoon at Shane’s then showered and headed in to hear a friend of Shane’s play at Dolores River Brewery in Dolores, Colorado. This friendly brewpub, along with craft beer, had woodfired pizza, beer garden complete with hops growing, and live music. It was just perfect for what I expected from a small mountain town known for outdoor fun and local history. I felt safer than I ever feel when out in public in Nashville. Shane’s friend Derek Dames Ohl played for the evening and asked Shane up to join him for a Luke Bell song. What a great ending for a crazy full day. It would be very hard to leave Shane and hit the road again in the morning. But we had a schedule to keep and we were headed North next.
If I didn't have all the photo evidence, I might think I dreamed the whole biker incident! Strangest part, at some point during lifting the extremely heavy bike, the back fender (we think) banged into Rick's left calf and he had a hell of a bruise, limped for about a week! We joke that he was more injured than the lucky biker dude! 🤣
That was a scary biker story! And so weird that the guys friend didn't assist (or at least offer) rescuing his buddy. Very odd. Talk about a man that had luck on his side that day? He should have gone a bought a lotto ticket, afterwards, but of course, he'd already won a lotto. Interesting comment about feeling safer at the brew pub than you do in Nashville. I agree. And that's a sad thing to have to think about, for any of us.