Weekend Trip - Part II

There's one thing that I didn't mention in the last post. At least I don't think I did. Even though the hubby had to be air lifted to the hospital in Knoxville, they didn't keep him over night. After they did the CT and X-rays and ruled out any serious injuries, they released him.

Now I get to talk about the incredible people we met.

There were a couple of guys on sport bikes riding behind us when the accident happened. There were other guys in a pickup truck that stopped and stayed at the scene the entire time. I know my mom got the names and addresses of everybody who helped us out. I'm so glad she thought to do that, because I was pretty out of it, and focused on staying with the hubby.

By the time my mom and I got back to the scene of the accident, the guys that saw it happen, and some others, already had his bike picked up and were in the process of figuring out how to get it up the bank. They tied ropes to it and pulled it up the bank with the truck. After the ambulance transported my hubby, they all stayed around to make sure that his bike and mine were taken care of. After the park rangers did all the measurements and finished their reports (since we were in the National Park they acted as the police), they loaded P's bike up in the back of the pickup truck. The young man on the sport bike who witnessed the accident and stayed around the whole time, Chris, had P's bike taken to his parents' house until we figured out how everything was going to come together. One of the other guys rode my bike to the same place since I had gone with the hubby.

Chris stayed with my mom and her boyfriend (I'll call him V from now on), and brought them to the hospital after they got the bikes taken care of. Since they were all on the bikes, we got a cab from the hospital. Chris took us over to his house to wait until V's son arrived with V's van and trailer to transport the bikes back home.

Our cab driver was incredibly nice too. He stopped by the pharmacy on the way to Chris's house so we could go ahead and get the medication that the doctor had prescribed for P. While we were waiting for the prescription, he stopped his meter instead of letting it continue to run since it took a while at the pharmacy. Then he went inside and bought ALL of us water, not allowing us to repay him for it. Then we found out that Tricare wouldn't pay for P's prescription, since it was one of the same ones he's already on (but didn't have on him) and it overlapped with the last time he'd had it refilled. OK, fine. Well, instead of letting me walk over and get money from my mom (since I didn't have any cash on me), he paid for it and said we'd settle up once we got where we were going. Then we went on to Chris's house, and when we got there, he actually rounded the total fare down, asking us to pay him less than the meter read. He was definitely the nicest cab driver I've ever had!

So we got to Chris's and he and his roommate cooked us dinner. They cooked steak, beans, and pasta salad. It was delicious! I just wasn't able to eat much due to my nerves. But Chris had also asked his roommate to get some cold beer, and that was one of the first things they asked P was if he was ready for a beer. Oh yeah! After dinner they let us just rest at their place until V's son got there. It was a little after 4 a.m. when we left Chris's and headed back to the hotel. That was a 2 hour drive, so it was after 6 when we got to the hotel. V and my mom requested a late check out from the hotel, and with the circumstances, they let us extend checkout to 2 p.m. Thank goodness! So we were able to get some sleep before having to make the drive back home. V's son and his girlfriend rode V's bike home, and the four of us brought the van home.

So many people did so many nice things for us last weekend, and I can't express how grateful I am to everybody who helped us. I'll definitely be getting the list from my mom and sending thank yous to them all, and probably a gift card of some sort. We were so blessed. There's definitely a lot of truth to what I've always heard about bikers taking care of each other. We experienced it first-hand a week ago.

The bike doesn't really have that much damage to it. The gas tank is dented, and it is scratched in quite a few places. The glass on the speedometer was busted, so of course the speedometer was broken. But insurance for motorcycles is interesting. We found out that any part of the motorcycle that was dented, dinged or scratched had to be replaced, not repaired. Not only that, but for Harley Davidson motorcycles (and maybe others, not sure), they don't allow for after market parts to be used. They have to be HD parts. So by the time the appraiser accounted for all the parts that had any kind of damage, even just a scratch, the repairs were going to cost more than the market value of the bike. So the insurance company totalled it. But we bought the salvage and are going to repair it. We have a friend who builds motorcycles and can help us get the parts and do the work for next to nothing. So it would have been stupid not to salvage it. We've already gotten the insurance settlement, and I just can't get over how quickly they moved on the claim. Five days from start to finish.

So even though I would never want to go through this again, it has turned out pretty well. My husband is ok...he's still a little sore. His black eye is almost gone. He's still limping because his ankle is still bothering him, but it's getting better. He's keeping his Baby, and our friend is going to help him do the customization on it that he's been wanting to do.

Does this make me hesitant to continue to ride? Nah. This could just as easily have happened in a car. In fact, there was a car that ran off the road up there earlier that day. I haven't ridden since last Saturday, but I haven't really been able to. We've been busy with the new house, and the kids are home from school. So I can't really go riding when I'm by myself with them. I'll get out as soon as I get a chance though!

I'll share the pictures I took here in a few minutes.