Everything is OK

I'm at home and doing well.

they're both broken

went to the specialist today - turns out both wrists are broken. i have surgery tomorrow at 11AM. this sucks.

My sister is pregnant!

I wanted to post about this earlier, but had to be sure she got a chance to tell all of the relatives - my sister is now about 8 weeks pregnant! She has decided to name the kid Sadie or Greg Jr., but wants to call it Bubba if it's a boy. I am going to have a nephew named Bubba. Man am I ever going to enjoy being the crazy democrat, bad-influence aunt! For those of you who don't know, my sister introduces me to everyone as her "crazy democrat sister" - apparently those two words go together in Central Texas like peas and carrots.

Recovering Well

Thanks for all of your well wishes! My boss called Sunday and said I was crazy to think I was going to get on a plane so I am working from home for the time being. I have not heard from my doctor or the state trooper or the BMW dealer so there is nothing new to report.

A Night of Firsts

I will be posting more about the Alaska trip soon, but thought I should share my night of firsts with you. We were on our final leg of the journey yesterday from Williams Lake, B.C. to Seattle. John and I split off after going through the US border because he travels faster than I do (this is about to become ironic.) I was on I-5 south in Everett and traffic was slowing down - I was going maybe 45-50 when the THREE cars in front of me stopped suddenly - I almost made it, but I just didn't break hard enough and couldn't swerve as there was a vehicle beside me. I hit the right rear bumper of the last car.

I didn't fall over, or come off the bike, but my grip on the handlebars was severe so my wrists absorbed the impact. When the cars started to move to the side I couldn't hold the bike up - it fell over and a few guys that stopped helped me get it over to the side of the road. I was trying to get the girl and her friend from the car in front of me (car #3) to help me take my helmet and gloves off, but the driver started freaking out and then screaming at the driver of car #1. Her friend explained that the girl didn't have a license and the girl wailed that she was not going to fucking go to jail because of some idiot. She and her friend then got in the car and took off. I got the guys from car #1 (3 teens) to memorize her plate number. Meanwhile, guy in car #2 was STILL in the car - never got out. I managed to get my helmet undone and pulled off and tried to get the guys from car #1 to help me with my left glove, but they were afraid they would hurt me. Just then, the firemen showed up - hooray! They helped me get my glove and jacket off and then quickly sat me down when they saw my wrist - it looked - well, wrong. They put me in a cardboard splint and wrapped it with gauze and an ice pack. Amazingly, they said my pulse and blood pressure were extremely good and we joked around a bit until I started feeling dizzy.

The ambulance came and they loaded me up onto the stretcher. I asked if I could take my small "personals" bag with me and the firemen decided to load all of my luggage into the ambulance so it wouldn't be impounded in the tow lot! Meanwhile I was loaded into the ambulance and they put ice on my other wrist which was also swelling, but not bad. We drove to the hospital and they put me and all of my stuff into a room to wait for the doctor.

One of the nurses let me call John's cell phone and leave a message and then I told her to call Belltown Starbucks to get him because that's where we were to meet up. Poor John was in the middle of telling friends about the great trip we had and got a phone call from a hospital! He rode home, dropped his cycle gear, threw on some regular clothes and hopped in the car.

My left wrist is broken and the right one is sprained. They told me at first that they were just going to splint it and send me home - follow up with an orthopedic guy later - but then they re-evaluated the x-ray (thank goodness) and got out what looked like torture devices combined with a Chinese finger trap. They unwrapped the arm and it was REALLY obviously wrong. They put me to sleep and when I woke up I had been re-aligned. John said that I moaned and kicked when they were re-setting the bone!

So - my night of firsts:

1. First hit-and-run
2. First ambulance ride
3. First broken bone

I called today and had my motorcycle taken from the tow yard to the BMW dealer in Tacoma. They think it might be totaled but won't know until next week.

My "good" wrist is purple and swollen stiff so typing even one handed is a bit of a challenge. I am supposed to fly out to Omaha Monday morning to do a client training on Tuesday & Wednesday. I am finding it very difficult to dress and groom myself. Showering with a large garbage bag over my arm will be fun - I opted for a sponge bath this morning as I wasn't yet up to dealing with a shower. Hair is a big problem, so are some clasps on clothing, and there is no way I am even going to attempt pantyhose!

Update From Alaska

How in the world am I to convey the experiences of the past few days? There has been beauty, pain, mud, sunshine (even at 2AM), rain, snow, camping, great roads, terrible roads, and more mud.


Just having a beer

Talkeetna at midnight

Yup - it's a good place to sit and have a drink

John has fun in a mud puddle

I am not much of a horse whisperer, but I tried.

We spent a wonderful night in Talkeetna and then headed to Fairbanks where we camped in the Chena River campground which was actually in the middle of town, but seemed like it was in the middle of no where.

We then headed out to the Dalton Highway - anxious about the 400 miles of dirt road ahead, but ready to take it on. About 6 miles after we entered the highway we came around a curve and saw what appeared to be 2 men hitchhiking. They were gesticulating wildly towards the bush on the other side of the road and as I stopped it became clear why – they had just rolled their car! They apparently took the corner way too fast, started swerving and lost control – their belongings were strewn all over in the bushes and the car was undriveable. They were both ok – just shaken up a bit. John and I did what we could to help – gave them food, water, etc, and were about to go get help when another vehicle came by that was going back towards civilization and had room for both of them. The following pictures were actually taken on our way back three days later – apparently they didn’t get the car towed.


The wrecked car

The road to Coldfoot was a little challenging, but we had great weather to work with. There were sections of road that were hard-packed dirt and easy to ride, but there were also a few sections that were swimming in gravel, and then there was the construction blast zone and my personal favorite… the water truck. I really think that the water truck guys have scorecards on their dashboards to see how many motorcyclists they can foil. The worst is when they are spraying calcium chloride on the road which makes it like riding in snot! There were valleys that looked carpeted in purple from the fireweed, cloud-covered peaks, and many rivers. By the time we arrived in Coldfoot we were a bit dirty, tired, and happy to meet more bikers to share beer with.


Coldfoot Camp was a gold mining camp - named because people got "coldfeet" in September and headed back to Fairbanks (which had to be done by way of the Yukion River.

The only things in Coldfoot now are a "hotel" made out of converted double-wide trailers, and a cafe/bar. There is also a ranger station and visitor center on the other side of the highway.

A motorcycle tour company was going through along with several other groups - we looked like a motorcycle gang - kind of - more like an off road gang.

We met Bill from Australia who had just come from a trip down to Tierra Del Fuego, a couple from North Carolina, one from Pennsylvania, aone from California, and some from New York and Texas.

Hearing tales of the road ahead.

The trip from Coldfoot to Deadhorse the next morning involved more of the same types of roads, but the scenery was much different. We crossed into the Brooks Range and up a mountain pass. It was amazing to see the mountains in the distance and then be right in the middle of them. On the other side we drove into a series of beautiful valleys with the Alaskan Pipeline running right down the middle. We saw a lot of little squirrels and something that John called an “Arctic Miniature Beaver”. We also saw a moose (from far away), and that was about it. The land running out from the valley became more prarie-like as we moved north towards the Arctic Ocean. When we finally pulled into Deadhorse it was a bit anti-climactic. I have no idea what I expected, but we quickly decided we would rather just eat a quick bite and turn around.


Beautiful day! Notice the dry gravel roads?

We could see a storm brewing in the mountains ahead. Thankfully we only got a little shower.

Look closely - I am the dot about to round the first corner.

The intrepid adventurers.

Snow on the pass

There were a few paved sections which made me happy. This was on the downward slope toward the ocean.



We bought stickers for our panniers to prove we had been there and decided to head back to Coldfoot for two reasons: (1) We saw three riders pass us going south who we thought were our Columbian friends that were to be in the area that week (2) some of the people we met the night before had just turned around to go back. We shortly discovered that this was not a good idea after all.

There wasn't much of interest in Deadhorse.

We gasses up from a barrel that had a credit card machine attached (in the shack).

We thought we were dirty - ha! You'll see what I mean in the next post.

A little dirt.

Remember the “swimming in gravel” I mentioned earlier? Well, about 3 miles outside of Deadhorse I hit a pool of it and got myself into what is known as a “tank slapper” – where your handlebars are oscillating back and forth with such force that they are actually slapping the tank. I lost it and went down in the gravel. I lay there for a moment trying to determine what was hurt the most and looking back at my motorcycle that was lying in the road behind me. John managed to get my bike and me up and across the road so the 18-wheelers wouldn’t run over us. The first guy to stop was a trucker who said that just the day before they had hauled two crashed bikes out and the riders flew back to Anchorage – not heartening news at the time as I felt like I was going to be sick – or maybe just pass out. Thankfully there was a rare concentration of bikers on the road that day, especially the Alaska Adventures touring group who helped a lot!

My bike looked so sad. The handlebars were completely bent over on the left side and my pannier had been ripped off. My windshield was shattered and my mirror was also gone. As for me – I hurt all over, but quickly determined that the main problem was my left foot. The next person to stop was the owner of the Alaska Adventures motorcycle touring company who told us that his sweep van would be by soon and they would be glad to put the bike on the trailer and take it into town. He and John made me comfy and got my boot off.


The lop-sided bike

The doc fixing me up.

The next group to come by included our new friends from Texas. They saw that everything was OK and then laughed because one of them had gone down only a half mile earlier! It was a busy day in the gravel. The next pair to stop was part of the motorcycle tour and one of them was a trauma doctor! He examined my foot – said I had probably ripped some of the ligaments in the top of the foot – wrapped it for me, and prescribed ice and Advil. A few minutes later, Phil came back with ice and Dan came by with the sweeper truck. They got my bike loaded onto the trailer and we headed to Deadhorse – again. We ended up staying the night so we could fix my bike.


Waiting for the van

Tom from the Nana Oil Machine Shop heats up my handlebar to bend it back into place.

John helps.

We headed out of Deadhorse at about 12:30 - not bad considering all we had to do to get the bike fixed! Stay tuned for the next post where we get REALLY DIRTY!