Broken Wings
There's a saying in the biker community - "It's not IF you go down, it's WHEN you go down."
If you go down and survive, you earn the 'broken wings'. It's a patch of the traditional eagle wings, only instead of being spread out wide, they are bent.
A lot of our friends have crashed.
Three have died as a result.
Fortunately, the numbers are in our favor.
MFH went down. He got hit by a car. I was right behind him, and because the teenaged driver panicked and tried to drive away, I was able to ride through the crash.
We were on the way to an Iron Horse Rodeo. There were about ten bikes riding in our group, MFH the lead bike. We approached a small town, a dot on the map really, and there was an intersection. The girl had to have seen us - she gunned it, trying to get across the road ahead of us. She hit MFH and proceeded to drive on. I rode through the intersection, looked back to see MFH laying on the ground and then I chased her down, and when she finally stopped I shouted, "Do you know what you just did back there? You HIT a motorcycle and you didn't even stop! You ran over my husband!" She just sat there and cried. I stood by the car until the police arrived.
I just could not believe that even at the tender age of seventeen she was not concerned enough to stop, with a man laying on the ground at her expense. Yes, I can understand being scared - but to leave the scene?
The bike was not totaled, but her car was. Can you imagine our disbelief when MFH asked for a new leather coat on the insurance claim and the adjuster said that could not be covered because it was not part of the bike?
How much does it cost for a skin graft? Without that coat, it would have been unimaginably worse.
That coat now bears the patch of broken wings.
The other day after my friend's funeral we gathered at the local watering hole to celebrate his life. He would have liked that. Dennis was 50 years old. 50 years young. But it occurred to me that we are at a point where we will start gathering for sad occasions more often than we will for happy ones, like weddings and the birth of children.
When the hell did that happen?
If you go down and survive, you earn the 'broken wings'. It's a patch of the traditional eagle wings, only instead of being spread out wide, they are bent.
A lot of our friends have crashed.
Three have died as a result.
Fortunately, the numbers are in our favor.
MFH went down. He got hit by a car. I was right behind him, and because the teenaged driver panicked and tried to drive away, I was able to ride through the crash.
We were on the way to an Iron Horse Rodeo. There were about ten bikes riding in our group, MFH the lead bike. We approached a small town, a dot on the map really, and there was an intersection. The girl had to have seen us - she gunned it, trying to get across the road ahead of us. She hit MFH and proceeded to drive on. I rode through the intersection, looked back to see MFH laying on the ground and then I chased her down, and when she finally stopped I shouted, "Do you know what you just did back there? You HIT a motorcycle and you didn't even stop! You ran over my husband!" She just sat there and cried. I stood by the car until the police arrived.
I just could not believe that even at the tender age of seventeen she was not concerned enough to stop, with a man laying on the ground at her expense. Yes, I can understand being scared - but to leave the scene?
The bike was not totaled, but her car was. Can you imagine our disbelief when MFH asked for a new leather coat on the insurance claim and the adjuster said that could not be covered because it was not part of the bike?
How much does it cost for a skin graft? Without that coat, it would have been unimaginably worse.
That coat now bears the patch of broken wings.
The other day after my friend's funeral we gathered at the local watering hole to celebrate his life. He would have liked that. Dennis was 50 years old. 50 years young. But it occurred to me that we are at a point where we will start gathering for sad occasions more often than we will for happy ones, like weddings and the birth of children.
When the hell did that happen?
posted by Well-heeled mom @ 9:03 AM
3 Comments:
At 8:22 PM,
DD said…
Mr. DD thinks he wants another bike (he had a crotch rocket in his 20's). I firmly against it.
My cousin and his girlfriend were in a horrific crash several years ago. A grain truck pulled out and didn't see them. The wheels went right over them both. Crushed her pelvis; broke his back. They both lived, but it was a couple years before my cousin was able to stop saying he wished he had died b/c of the pain and his permanent disability.
Not to scare you, as I know you have seen worse, but maybe you two can find another, safer, traveling hobby.
At 7:23 AM,
Suz said…
This is terrifying. I can't imagine what you must have felt. I always give motorcycles a wide berth when driving because people just look so fragile on them.
At 3:47 PM,
carla said…
so well put.
carla
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