"Road Rage!"

 Thursday, Aug 19th started out like most other days over the past few weeks.  I'd been on the road for nearly 3 weeks spending some time in Sturgis with friends and from there spending time with family in Iowa, Minnesota, and Kansas.

Part of me is inclined to tell this story putting me in the best light possible...and leaving out the part where I flipped off the idiot that tried to take me out, however I won't do that.  I'll tell it like it actually happened.

I had left Kansas City on the morning of the 18th hoping to get home on the 19th.  About 45 miles on the road, I realized that I'd left my 'injector' in Kansas.  It's what I use to give myself a shot when I get a bad headache.  I had carried it religiously over the past 3 weeks because it's a life saver when I actually need it.  I decided to not turn around and hope for the best.  It would spend a lot of hours over the next  2 days on the bike, but it was not an unreasonable goal at all to arrive home on the 19th.  

My plans got upended just a bit when exiting the freeway in a small town in KS only to realize that I had no shifter!  It had rattled loose somewhere on the freeway completely unnoticed by me.  I quickly resorted to reaching down to the mechanism and shifting by hand to get me to a gas station so I could assess the situation.

I saw a few bikers and asked them if they knew of any motorcycle shops in the area.  They didn't know of any...  I then saw a couple of state troopers and asked them the same question.  They pointed me to a Honda and Polaris dealer down the road a bit, so I limped over to both of them to find out if they might have anything that would suffice.  I wasn't confident at all and the effort did in fact prove to be futile.

Knowing that any local guy with a couple of Harley's would probably have the part I needed, I continued to try to resolve my problem locally.  I stopped at a NAPA and got a good lead about a local guy who worked on Harley's... just down the road a few miles.  This also turned out to be unproductive and I made the decision to backtrack 40 miles to Wichita, KS to a Harley dealership.  (all the while using the not 100% safe method of shifting by hand)  I arrived safely at the dealership, purchased the parts I needed, and installed them in their parking lot using my emergency set of tools that has gotten me through more than 1 small mechanical problem over the years.

I was back on the road finally, but the whole incident cost me at least 3 hours. I became resigned to probably not making it home the next day.

I slept pretty good the 18th in Liberal, KS.  It had taken me an entire day to get through the state and I found myself 4 miles from the Oklahoma border.  I was a little dejected but resolved to get as far as I could the following day.

I woke up early and felt pretty darn good.  I had resolve to really push myself and I did.  The only stops I made for the first few hundred miles were for gas.  I was putting at least 150 miles on between stops and making really good time.  

I stopped East of Albuquerque and filled up with fuel again, spent just a few minutes giving my rear end a bit of a break, and took off.  I was feeling really good about my progress and it occurred to me that if I kept pushing myself I still may get home before the day was over.

I cruised on through Albuquerque with no issues at all.  My timing was good and I beat rush hour by an hour or so...only to come to a complete stop on I-40 about 30 miles down the road.  It wasn't stop-and-go...  It wasn't stopping for 5 minutes and then moving a few hundred yards.  It was a complete stop.  I knew that probably didn't bode well for someone up the road but I kept my good attitude and visited with my new 'neighbors' on the freeway.  

Finally...after about 90 minutes, I heard vehicles firing up...and we did end up moving a few hundred yards before we came to a complete stop again.  By this time, I saw a couple of police officers 50 yards away so I got off the bike and walked up to them to see if I could get any info.  They informed me that my fears were correct and there was indeed a very bad fatality accident up ahead with the freeway completely blocked.  Nothing had even been moved off the scene yet and it wouldn't be for hours.  If you've ever came up on a fatality accident, they shut things down completely! (as they should)  The officers kindly informed me that they were starting to turn traffic around a couple miles ahead (which is why we'd been able to move a bit earlier)  If I liked, I could cruise up on the shoulder to where they were on the bike... and turn around by going through the 'emergency vehicle' turn around.

I did that in anticipation of going through Albuquerque for my 2nd time in one day.  My plan was to go South on I-25 and take Hiway 60 back home.  It would be a little longer route but there really wasn't any other options.  There was a way that a guy could've gotten around the wreck by taking a 50 mile detour or so, but... it went through a reservation, and due to 'covid' concerns, they were not allowing any traffic that wasn't local, to access that road.

I'm once again off and cruising!  Traffic was a bit crazy due to the wreck and many frustrated people probably.  I actually still felt pretty good and was in good spirits.  At least I wasn't one of the people they were probably scraping off the freeway on I-40.

I made a quick stop at the first exit and had a bottle of water, used the bathroom, and hit the road determined to get as far as I could.  I once again had become resigned to not making it home that night.

The whole incident I'm about to describe only took seconds probably but I ended up thinking about it for hours and even ended up having nightmares about it later in the evening.

I was cruising along at 70-75 mph as was everyone else.  I was in the 2nd lane from the left and ended up getting behind slower moving traffic.  The fast lane was cruising right along so that's the one I was heading for!  I put on my blinker and started to make my move.  I heard/saw a pickup truck moving faster than most vehicles in that lane, far enough back, that it didn't sway my decision to make the move into the fast lane.  I made my move and immediately sped up to normal driving speed.

I no more than did that and the guy behind me roars his engine, lays on his horn for an extended period of time and gets right on my ass!  I'm talking 2-3 feet behind my bike.  He was so close I could barely see him in my mirrors.  This is where I gave him a quite adamant middle finger.  Might not have been the smartest thing to do with someone behind me... and me on a bike, but there's not a lot of time to assess the situation when something like this happens.  Hindsight...  I'd have just exited the lane and opened it up for the idiot.

At any rate, my middle finger probably didn't help the situation.  His engine roared again and he whipped into the lane next to me...and immediately whipped back into the fast lane before he had even gotten around me...  Thankfully, being in the fast lane, I had a 'shoulder' to my left.  There was no time to think.  I immediately swerved onto that shoulder.  I could've literally reached out and touched him... or punched him... if I wouldn't have been trying to save my own life.  

You've probably seen the type.  He was driving some punked out little pickup truck.  The kind that remind you of some stupid gang-bangin' boneheads that think the world revolves around them.

I avoided contact with him, and avoided contact with the guard rail...and immediately slowed way down and worked my way into another lane.  I slowed down enough (and traffic was thick enough) that I ensured I would have no further contact with the guy.  

I was pretty shaken up...  More so than I've ever been on the bike...and I've seen and been through quite a bit on that bike.  One time while riding to Sturgis, I was on a 2-lane Hiway.  I was meeting a semi on the hiway when a car whipped around him in a no passing zone.  I literally ended up going between oncoming traffic (the truck and the car passing him) with only a couple feet on each side.  Many times, I've had people pull out in front of me from a stop sign when it's not anywhere near safe for them to do so but thankfully I've lived through all of that.  I was less shaken up by any of these incidents than I was by this one.

I made my way to I-25 only to find myself in stopped traffic again once I was 5 miles out of town.  I couldn't believe my luck.  Part of me was thankful I was alive (I swear my heart was still beating quite fast) but part of me was cussing my bad luck that apparently I may never get home!  That's how it seemed anyways...  lol  I spent the next hour stopping...and going... until finally traffic opened up.

I stopped in Socorro, NM where Hiway 60 and I-25 meet.  Again, I stopped for some water, used the bathroom, got fuel, and decided to keep going.  I still was worked up enough that I was quite certain I couldn't sleep anyway.  I was replaying the incident from Albuquerque over and over in my head.

The next 50 miles or so was quite surreal.  It was cooling down, the sun was going down and it was a gorgeous sunset!  I had mountains in every direction.  It was perfect!  For a short period of time, I actually wondered if I had been killed and was in heaven!  (just kidding) lol

I did start to settle down anyways and went through a small town called Magdalena.  There looked to be a delightful little motel along the South side of the road and I decided to stop.  I ended up getting a room and had a wonderful visit with another biker and the lodge owner.  

She informed me that there was a little saloon just a block away and if I needed a bite to eat, I might be able to find something there.  I unpacked my bike, made a few phone calls to reassure people I was ok (after my facebook post) and went to the saloon.  I thought after the day I'd been through a cold beer might be just the ticket!  It was!  Once again, I made a new friend and had a wonderful visit with the little saloon owner.  After 1 beer headed back to my room.

My friend Nancy and I exchanged a few messages, said goodnight, and I thought I was going to take a much-anticipated shower.  I got undressed and immediately felt like I better lay down.  My left eyeball was starting to hurt...and that's all I need for me to know that I may be getting a bad headache.  I did get a bad headache!  I got a bad headache fast!  Within minutes I was laying on the bed moaning and groaning in pain.  I felt nauseous.  I had enough where-with-all to grab a can in case I needed to vomit.

The nauseousness kind of went away but the headache didn't!  I was in excruciating pain for quite some time.  I looked at the clock once the pain had ended and it said 12:45 PM.  I'm thinking the headache lasted 2 to 2-1/2 hours.  As you may recall, I had left my injector in KC so I had no way to give myself a shot.  I had my medicine but no way to administer it.  I just had to suffer through the headache.

I finally did end up throwing up and as best I can recall within 1/2 hour after that, the pain was gone.  I was of course exhausted after fighting the headache but I'd survived it.  I was freezing cold for at least a couple of hours but didn't have enough energy to do anything about it.  I actually wondered at this point if someone may find me dead in the morning.  I didn't care much at the moment...  :)  

At some point, I was able to get up and get my heavy wool blanket situated on the bed.  It did warm me up.  The entire night though, I went from being freezing cold... to at one point having to get a towel to wipe the sweat off my body.  I was wringing wet! I had the weirdest nightmares and dreams that I'd had in a very long time...

I never did get a shower in that night...so the one in the morning was much needed.

I know this has been a long story!  I apologize for that...  Hopefully it's not too boring...  To sum it up, I'm writing it from my computer at home.  I made it home on the 20th late in the afternoon.  I felt weak and poorly the entire day on the 20th due to that headache.  I took lots of breaks on the 6 hour ride home, but I made it...and I don't know that I've ever been more happy to be home.

I still have a lot of unpacking to do, laundry to do, business stuff to take care of, etc... but I got all the time in the world to do it!

I'm taking the next few days and simply relaxing and recovering...