Monday, September 13, 2010

Near Death Moment

So...last weekend my family and I went up to the Mountain Man Rendevous in Ft. Bridger, Wyoming. We have a cabin up there and it is kind of tradition for everyone to go up over the Labor Day weekend and just hang out. So Katie and I kinda had this cool idea that we would tag team and ride her new motorcycle up to it. It was such a good idea! We left on Friday afternoon at about 5:30 and rode and rode. Katie rode from Neola to Manilla and I went from there to Mountain View. I have never rode a motorcycle on the rode before (and I haven't really rode one too much off the rode either....Ryan's bike is too big (I know because I tipped it over when I stopped and couldn't reach the ground!) and my Dad has banned me from his bike, so....my experience was...limited.) so it was the perfect time to learn! Two downsides: 1. It was dark by the time I got to take a turn so that added a little excitement and 2. There were a lot of cars heading to Flaming Gorge, so it made me a bit nervous. Anyways....I did pretty well and we made it just fine.
So my near death experience came a few days later when we left to come home. Katie started out again and I was following in the car. After just a little ways she pulled over and was so frozen that she thought she was going to die. I decided to ride for a little while. We get going and I am doing great! I have the wind to my back so I can get the little tiny bike to go almost 65-70 mph and everything is great! So....here it comes...I am approaching a left hand turn. I am practically frozen to death even with multiple layers and leathers (darn Wyoming weather and wind) The wind is to my back and I am driving pretty fast. As I approach the turn, I am so cold that instead of being relaxed and just leaning into it, I am stiff (from the cold) and the bike won't turn! I panic and try to turn the wheel which doesn't actually do much on a road bike....your turns are 90% leaning. It does help a little but I am still pretty close the the edge. Just then I have turned enough that instead of the wind being at my back, it is coming from my left side and it is the straw the breaks the camels back! It actually pushed my off the road into the weeds! So I am trying not to panic because I am in the dirt and I had actually reasoned that I probably wouldn't be hurt to bad if I wrecked at this point....I just didn't want to hit pavement! Ha ha! And I have those little reflectors coming at me so I just kinda mentally tried to dodge them and guess what? By just letting my body do what was natural to miss the little poles, I totally straightened up and got back onto the road! I am just sure that Heavenly Father was watching over me and helped me not wreck. I was so lucky!
So I pretty much acted like nothing happened and drove all the way to Flaming Gorge-although I did slow down and was really, really careful on left turns! Ha ha!
Anyways...that was my near death experience and I am glad that it wasn't any closer than it was!
P.S. Ryan thought it was funny that I kept driving without stopping in the hopes that Katie hadn't seen me almost total her new bike:) She saw....