THE BICYCLE TRIP, continued

The saga continues...

"The Lads" rescheduled their adventure for the morning of Saturday, May 12th.   All four were more than ready to go.  (And, their wives had plans for the week, too.  For instance, Anna and Estelle, our French "daughter," were going to meet at 3 PM for coffee, shopping, or whatever.)  Anyway, we  all met at Place Carnot for the big send off, and they were, at last, on their way.


"The Lads" from the left: Tony, David, Pascal, and Roger.

The weather wasn't the best.  In fact, they had to take refuge from a torrential downpour under an autoroute bridge along with an older lady who turned out to be a great conversationalist.  A nice way to wait out a storm!
The weather cleared and they were off again.  They found a pleasant route and were quite enjoying the trip.  When, about 25 km (15-16 miles) south of Lyon, David's front tire somehow got wedged between a railroad track and the pavement.  The bike stopped, but he didn't.  (A body in motion tends to remain in motion - remember that from Physics?)  The next thing they knew, David was kneeling on the ground, holding his face, and, as Tony, says, "there was blood everywhere!"

As fortune would have it, a man in a near-by house was just on his porch, saying good-bye to his brother-in-law and saw the whole thing.  He called an aid car and hurried over to help.  (This gentleman and wife were wonderful to everyone!)  Soon David was off to the Emergency Room in an aid car accompanied by Pascal.

Even after being cleaned up at the hospital, David was a sight. Multiple scrapes and bruises on his face, along with bandages on his chin and upper lip and ten stitches above his left eye; scrapes and bandages on his arms and hands; torn pants and a scraped knee, and a lovely bruise on his thigh. Quite the visage! But, thankfully, it's nothing that can't heal.

Back on the homefront, Anna recieved a call from Dominique (Roger's wife) telling her that David was injured and Catherine, Tony's wife, would be happy to drive her down to join the riders and collect David to bring him home.  Soon they were off and arrived just as David was getting out of the hospital.

David is healing quite nicely and will get his stitches out at the end of this week.  Here's a picture Laurent, Estelle's husband, took of him a week after "the event."

Definitely on the mend!

So what about the bike ride?!  It's been rescheduled for June 3rd.  Stay tuned!