To Ride or Not to Ride

On Sunday, July 16th, at 4:30pm, John wrecked his motorcycle when he fell asleep while we were driving down the Cassier Highway. Thank you great spirit, he is alright. He has a broken left collarbone, suffered a mild concussion, and has a really sore body. He drove off the right side of the road, down a 10 foot embankment, and he luckily tumbled in grass and gravel. I was leading and noticed nobody behind me so I turned around and saw Jim and Monique stopped, hurrying to get to him and John unconscious down by his wrecked bike. Going down to check on John was one of the scariest moments of my life. I made sure he was breathing and then ran to get my 1st aid kit. John got himself on his back and then we all encouraged him to be still until he was checked out. Lucky again, people started stopping to help us and there was an airstrip with a satellite phone right nearby. And to set the scene, we were really in the middle of nowhere in the Canadian Pacific coastal mountains. It was 35 miles north to a gas station and 4 hours to the nearest town. We had just been driving from a break at that nearest gas station through about 20 miles of gravel. We figure John just got too relaxed on the smooth pavement after the tenseness of gravel. The 1st person to check John out was a paramedic on vacation from Vancouver. He checked everything major and we managed to safely get John's leather jacket off. John was already joking around at this point although he was in a good bit of pain. More paramedics showed up in trucks and finally the helicopter arrived. We loaded him on a board stretcher and onto the copter. There wasn't any room for me to accompany him and we were uncomfortable not being with him, but it's what had to be done. They took off for Deese Lake, 4 hours north, but told us he would be triaged there and then taken south to a bigger city with more facilities, either Terrace or Vancouver. Since we were exhausted, a little shocked, and unsure where they would finally take John, we drove to the nearest lodge, an hour south, and got a room at a heliskiing resort lodge, Bell 2. When we arrived, we called on a $5 a minute satellite phone to check on John and see were he had been taken further south. To our amazement and relief, he had already been discharged and taken to a local hotel. I called John and he was in good spirits, considering the situation. The plan was for him to get on the plane the next day from Deese Lake to Smithers, Smithers to Vancouver, Vancouver to Seattle, Seattle to Charlotte, Charlotte to Huntsville. Right now he should be getting on the plane in Vancouver.

All the people around us at the accident were so nice and helpful. It's really moving to see such compassion from people you've never met. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart for helping us out on that difficult day.

Of course, Jim, Monique, and I have been asking ourselves is there anything more we could have been doing to prevent this and the answer is no, short of not making the trip at all. I was leading and we were going 60-65 mph. We had been on the road for 250 miles this day and had been averaging 300 miles a day. We take breaks at least every hour to stretch our legs and get a drink and snack. We had just stopped 35 miles earlier. The previous night, we stayed in a cabin with beds and gotten a full night's sleep. Regardless, sometimes you get drowsy cruising down the road and I think everyone has experienced that in a car. We knew this was a issue for John and have encouraged everyone to just pull over and rest if you're getting tired. We had done so for Monique 2 days earlier when she had a slow spell. I just figure it snuck up on John before he knew what happened. A big factor in John being alright was him wearing good protective gear. We've been on the road 42 days and 8000 miles - making it that far over the roads we've been is a testament to our commitment to safety.

Other questions are should we be making this trip and should we ride motorcycles. Well, this trip is an epic, exhilarating experience. It makes life sweet and you carry it with you for the rest of your life. With the reward comes the risk and that is where opinions differ as to an acceptable level of risk. John, Jim, Monique, and I all know the risks we are taking and have made the choice to accept them. I'm sorry that it is tough on our family and friends, but you enjoy us because of who we are and this is who we are. A little bit riskier than normal, but really interesting and a lot of fun. Will I ride after this trip? I don't know. It will be a question I will ask myself many times.

Although we are sad John will not be able to make the rest of the trip with us, we are so happy he will be alright. We've decided to finish the trip as planned because we don't really have many other options and because John asked us to. We sure miss you John! We're really having a tough time getting used to you not being with us. Get well soon! We love you!

*I've also just posted some previous entries and pictures from our great time in Alaska. Check them out below.