Words from Michael

492.1
Okay, this is gonna be kinda long.
On Thursday, my wife (Marrion) rode home to Claxton, GA from Murphy, NC with Cindy (Trixie), went to doggie day care and picked up our fur baby, returned home and got some sleep.

Friday morning Cindy brought her motorcycle trailer (this thing is GREAT, the bed lowers all the way to the ground, easy loading!) and she and Marrion hooked it up to our Explorer. Marrion drove back to Murphy to get me and my bike at Sharon and Don's house (6 hours) and back home (another 6 hours) with me lying across the back seat, my foot propped on a pillow.
All told, my injuries are a broken right ankle, broken left thumb, bruised ribs on the left side, bruise and scratches on my right jaw. I'm not in as much pain as I thought I would be, actually I feel pretty good, considering what happened. The most pain is coming from my ribs.
As for what happened, for my part it was “Target Fixation”, pure and simple. I was starting into a sharp left curve when I saw Denise (Sunflower) go down in front of me. Why did she go down? I don't know, I wasn't paying that much attention to her until it happened and then I just couldn't take my eyes off of her.
Of course we all know that where you look is where you go and I was headed right for her, to my horror. By this time I knew that I was crashing, but I decided that I was NOT going to run Denise down in the process. I managed to ride into the hill around the right side of her and her bike, up around the back of them where my engine guard dug into the dirt (I'm glad it wasn't solid rock!).
I wound up down in front of her bike. I got up off of my bike and went to check on Denise who was still on the ground. She seemed to be okay, no bleeding and no apparent broken bones. Her bike seemed to be okay except for her right muffler which was bent out about 70 degrees from the side of the bike and a broken windshield. My bike had bent engine guards, a bent shifter and a broken windshield. I helped pick up the bikes and push them across the road to a clear spot where some other bikers had stopped before we came along and they had immediately come to our aid.
It was then that I noticed that my right ankle was beginning to hurt, I had a couple of small cuts on my right hand and blood on my chin from a scrape on the right side of my jaw. The other group, in which Marrion was riding, came around the curve and I told her to go ahead because I wanted her to finish her ride, which she did.
Unlike me, Marrion has slain “The Dragon”. Gypsie and Trixie (Cindy Daves and Cindy Taylor) had turned around and come back to see about us. Gypsie helped me bandage the cuts and abrasions on my hands and jaw and made me sit by butt down to take the weight off of my increasingly painful ankle.
Trixie went to the end of the Dragon to let everyone know what happened. Denise got a ride back to the Deal's Gap Resort to try to call her husband. I guess she told someone there what had happened because soon a guy came along on a bike that appeared to be set-up for supermoto racing. He checked out the situation and made a run back down to the resort. Soon he returned with a couple of guys (Kyle and Vern) in a Jeep Cherokee with a trailer with Denise in the back seat.
They removed the broken part of her bike's muffler and someone rode it down to the resort. Then the guy with the supermoto bike managed to ride mine down while Kyle and Vern picked up my broken butt and put me in the car. Denise got in and we rode down to the resort to wait for everyone to return. One of the staff at the resort, Jade, who also happens to be a paramedic checked me out and wrapped up my ankle.
Everyone had to come see how I was doing and I met Flo's husband, Rob, who flew down to surprise her at the Dragon. Sherry's husband, Gene, rode home to get his trailer and drove back to get me and my bike. He took me to the emergency room in Murphy and waited for HOURS (we had some great conversations) until he was relieved by Sharon and my wife. I signed in at the hospital at 5:00pm and was there until 2:00am.
I want to thank Sharon and Don for letting us stay with them in their beautiful home and for all of their help and hospitality. Thanks to Gene and Sherry for all of their help. Thanks to everyone for their concern. Denise, quit beating yourself up on my account. You didn't cause my wreck, I did. I'm just glad that I didn't run you down after my mistake. I hope you are feeling better and that you get your bike back on the road soon. As for me, I'm afraid that I will miss most of the summer riding season. Oh well, stuff happens.