Road Rash

In an effort to put more exercise into my daily routine, I decided to bike with Courtney down to the library which is about a 3 mile round trip ride (although it's uphill all the way back). Bryan took the tag-along attachment off his bike and put it onto mine last night and then adjusted my seat for me. I'm short and the seat has to be up higher than I usually have it, so I have to stretch to reach the pedals, but I make it work.

So this morning I attached the tag-along, loaded our books into a backpack, put on our helmets and Courtney and I were off. We had a great time for the first mile. It's almost all downhill to the library so we were cruising at quite a fast speed. We were within a half mile from the library when we passed a guy walking the cutest dog. Courtney looked back at it, leaned to the side too much and...over she went. I felt a tug, heard a scream, heard the tire being pulled on the road and I pulled my breaks...hard! I stopped and saw Courtney about 100 feet behind me, picking herself up off the ground. The guy we had passed was sprinting, pulling his little dog behind him, up to see if Courtney was okay. I dropped my bike, ran back and just grabbed her in a hug. She was really cut up. Both of her knees were bloody, her hands were all black from the road, her elbows were cut up, her right cheek had road rash on it, a couple of her toes were bleeding (we had a fight about her putting on tennis shoes and she said, "Daddy always lets me ride in sandals" and I caved), and she has road rash on her little belly and chest. Poor girl!!

The man offered to get his truck and take us home but Courtney didn't want to ride with a stranger and wanted to bike back home. We righted the bike, tried to clean her up a bit (the one time I don't have a first aid kit with me) and then started off. We got about 200 feet when it happened again. She jumped off this time without getting hurt and said, "That was fun that time," But by then I was done. The ride back home was a mile that was all uphill and not fun under normal circumstances. So I pulled out the cell phone and began making phone calls, but no one was home. The guy came back to check on us and said that he was getting his truck and for us to get the bike off the bike trail and onto the main road so we could load it in his truck.

Courtney and I got the bike to the road, sat there and waited for him to come back. He was so nice to give us a ride and he even brought band-aids for Courtney so she would feel better.

When we got home, I gave Courtney a bath to try and wash all the road off her body and then put about 8 band-aids (with ointment) on her cuts. Poor girl. I wanted to take a picture to document her spill, but she wouldn't let me. She's been a trooper but had me call dad to let him know. She told me that she is "never, ever" going to ride on the tag-along with me again! But that she would feel better if I used the bike trailer because she can't fall out of the bike trailer. She has a point.

Poor girl!