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I have a date in the Operating Room.

I just received the call from the hospital scheduler, and I am first in the Operating Room tomorrow morning. I have chosen not to do a local anaesthesia instead choosing a regional anaesthesia. I guess that involves seven shots in the arm pit to nerve block off everything, and I’ll be awake during the two hour operation. The doctors told me I wont be able to make any legal decisions for 24 hours afterwards, so I guess I’ll just be taking it easy. I have never had surgery before so I am blind going into the recuperation period.

I think the most annoying thing about everything is having my hand and wrist immobilized in a cast for a few weeks afterwards - talk about putting a damper on my lifestyle. Yet, I am thankful for my overall health and know the issues with my hand and foot should resolve in due time.

I love cheese tortellini.

The Adventures of beansbaxter…

I took this from my PNW Riders motorcycle site. One of the riders there posted this, and it did bring me quite a few laughs. I’ll just let the story and the humor speak for itself:

After thinking on this for a couple days, I’ve decided to pitch “The Adventures of beansbaxter” as a possible television movie/series. So, with tongue firmly in cheek, I give you the treatment of the pilot episode. I’ve taken some liberties with a few of the details, along with adding comments (like this) on possible product placement/sponsorship opportunities. Beans, if you decide to pitch this I get a writers credit and 15% of the merchandising gross. I can see little “beansbaxter” action figures on the shelves of Wal-Mart.

Opening scene, a deserted highway, a motorcycle rider speeding down the road raising a dust cloud. (Kawasaki is unlikely to sponsor the show, would you consider riding a Harley? Or maybe a Vespa? Scooters are cool right now.) The narrator speaks.

“A single man, fighting for the glory and safety of America, riding alone against the forces of evil. Searching for injustice, and pursuing the perfect stuffed french toast.

“This week, on the Adventures of beansbaxter, the intrepid rider leaves Sturgis in pursuit of his favorite IHOP waitress, last seen duct taped and stuffed into a car trunk headed for Colorado.”

Beans pursues on his mighty (Are you sure you won’t switch to a Harley? How about a Honda?) ZX-10. Slowly gaining ground on the fleeing kidnapper. Suddenly, the fiend turns onto a deserted back road and disappears over a hill. Unseen, he dumps several bags of sand on the road then takes off. As Beans crests the hill his bike begins to slide. Despite his heroic efforts, he has a monumental high side and is tossed 30 feet into the air (We don’t have much budget for special effects or stunt people. Any chance you would be willing to re-enact the crash?) Landing hard, in a cloud of dust, he hops to his feet only to stumble and fall on his badly damaged foot. Crawling back to his bike, dragging himself with his one undamaged hand, he finally reaches his saddle bags.

Pulling a roll of duct tape from his bag he quickly creates makeshift splints and stops the bleeding by creative use of duct tape. Reaching into a secret compartment on his bike he retrieves his top secret communicator. Unable to reach his headquarters due to jamming from his enemies, he is forced to rise from the dust, push his bike to the nearest help, all while hopping on one foot.

Coming upon a closed fuel station, Beans breaks in, finds items he needs to make repairs to his bike, then leaves money and a note of apology. He fixes the damaged window with duct tape then leaves in pursuit of the kidnapper. (Would Jafar consider playing the head of the enemy syndicate?)

Switch scene to a high tech headquarters, lots of computers and flashy lights. A red light slowly flashing on a screen. No one sees it.

Back to Beans, slowly rolling into a driveway somewhere in Colorado. A helpful person catches the slowly tipping bike as Beans passes out from the pain.

Next scene, Hospital room. Beans, in hand cast and with a brace on ankle/foot limps to closet and begins dressing in riding gear. Nurse and doctor attempt to restrain him. He forces his way out saying, “She’s in danger. I can’t leave her to him!” (Rumor has it that Britney Spears has her agent negotiating for an audition for the part of Beans’ girlfriend/kidnapping victim. We’re still working on the hair thing.)

Once more on his battle scarred and damaged motorcycle (No way on the Harley? OK, we’ll give up the money, but it’s coming out of your share of the profits.) Beans speeds through a blinding snow storm on his way north, after receiving a tip from a homeless man (played by Christopher Lee).

Arriving in Seattle, just as the sun sets, shining on a gleaming white Mt. Rainier (Hey, a guy can hope, can’t he? the clouds have to clear someday.) Beans stumbles into headquarters just as the exhaust system falls from his damaged bike.

End of ep. 1.

So, what do you think? I’m thinking Russel Crowe for the part of beansbaxter. Despite Britney’s request, I think we can do better for the girlfriend. Music is still up in the air, but I’m hoping to have something nailed down by next week. We might be able to get the Possum Mountain Woodchuck Jug Band to do the theme song and first few episodes.

We all know Beans aversion to anything but water, so I was thinking, maybe product placement with Perrier, or one of the new oxygenated waters? Maybe get some riding gear donated for product placement.

They say laughter is the best medicine, and Daniel, I hope you got at least a half smile out of this.

Dave T.

Source: http://www.pnwriders.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48995

The Longest Ride

So yeah… I rode back from Colorado Springs, CO back here in one-shot and it was a ride full of everything - too much to get into. I experienced a full adventure on that ride back and it was the craziest, insane, exhausting, longest ride of my life.

In my days of riding, my top 3 longest rides are now:

1) Colorado Springs to Seattle - recent
2) Las Vegas to Bellingham - earlier this year
3) Sacremento to Spokane - 2004

Not only was it the longest, it was the most painful ride ever. I dont think I have ever gone through so much to get back and then be so exhausted.

They had me do more xrays today, this time focusing on the thumb area of my right hand. They said it “looked” borderline broken but its been fine so I dunno what that was all about. I’m in a lot of pain but I’m managing it.

My foot has been just on fire as of late…but the real time is going to be Tuesday August 21 - I am set for surgery. I’ll be in a cast after that and go from there.

When will it end?

I spent a lot of time at the doctors today, mainly because I was a walk-in at the emergency room in Denver, so it was very packed in there.

My original thoughts were I had just 2 broken fingers, so they sent me to get xrays and then the doctors thought my right foot was broken too. My foot has been swelling up, with pain in the ball part of the foot, and the main joint at the big toe spot. I have been unable to walk on it with any pressure so they wanted me to get that xrayed just to see how it looked.

After reading the xrays, the results came back showing my right foot is not broken, and only one of my two fingers were indeed broken. The second finger was just bruised up, but the end finger had continued to worsen and the xrays show why.

I am no doctor. However, as it was explained to me… the upper portion of my end finger was broken up into many pieces and it is unsure how much concern it went into the “joint” portion of the finger. Tomorrow morning, they are having a orthopedics specialist from the University of Colorado review the xrays and make the determination if the joint is affected. If the joint is/was affected, then they will recommend surgery.

If I was to get surgery, I have to wait about a week to do it so the swelling can come down some. It would also have to be done right at a week, because they said with no surgery, the hand would be healed in about three weeks and I would have to live with whatever it ended up healing as. So tomorrow, I find out about the extent of the damage into the joint area and whether surgery is recommended. If I do need surgery, I will entertain the idea of sticking around Colorado to do it here or getting back into Washington in time to have it done there.

My 2 fingers on my right hand are wrapped up in a joint splint (it’s so hard to type on the right side of the keyboard uggg), and for now I’ll hobble with a soft shoe on the right foot. More bruises are showing up on my shoulder and rib cage, but overall my spirits are very good and I am truly thankful and counting my blessings as it could always be worse.

About the bike…I am actually thankful that I took the dive in the soft sand as it probably lessened the extent of the damage. I am slowly ripping the bike apart looking into it more and more to see the true extent of the damage to make a determination on what to do next.

So tomorrow, I will know the final disposition on my body and my bike.

My body has been aching all day today, and I am amazed at how much the body can do and perform when running on high adrenaline as I was right after the accident. Once that adrenaline high comes down, it brings one down very fast and the up and down experience is amazing in a bad way to say the least.

Here are some pics from the day:

All in an afternoon…

Well, today has been one of those days. I dont even know where to begin…

I was leaving the Sturgis Bike Rally in South Dakota, en route to Colorado. I was trying to avoid going through Wyoming, so made way through Nebraska instead to work my way south. The majority of my entire trip has been completely off the Interstate, all on backroads, mainly to have more fun, avoid all the RV’s and traffic, and to lighten the LEO’s that I may run into.

Got through that and was another 25 miles down the road, turned off on another backroad to avoid the traffic, and was only 2 miles down this desolate road when it happened again - soft sand replacing the road - only this time, there was zero warning.

The speed limit sign said 50mph, right where the road turned to soft sand/gravel. I was going right around 55 when I saw the road change, but it was too late. The road crested there, so my warning was only maybe 15-20 feet in advance. I hit my brakes very hard, fished tailed the rear, but straightened it out as I hit the sand and gravel. I dont think I slowed down to anything under 40mph when I hit it - the bike dived to the left hitting on the right side and throwing me about 3 feet from the bike. It all happened so fast. Adrenaline and shock combined was making me go crazy.

I’ve been riding since 1996, never wrecked a motorcycle up to this point. Sure, I’ve dropped a bike at a standstill due to stupidity, but I have never wrecked a bike while in any kind of motion. Damn! It all happened so fast!

So here I am in the middle of nowhere, roaming on the ole cell phone, and not enough energy to even lift my bike. A couple fingers on my right hand were blatantly popped out of place, I popped them back into place, but one of them keeps staying popped out. Right foot and knee were sore, not sure of what. Adrenaline was pumping like crazy! I know I went into shock, it was hard to come to any calmness, my mind was going stir crazy!!

I was wearing full gear, and I really mean full gear. I had my Vanson Leathers for my pants and jacket, with armor, Sidi boots, gloves, and helmet of course. I know, without a doubt in my mind, that my injuries would be way worse had I not been wearing all my gear.

I finally got the bike up, pushed it two miles back to a nearby gas station from where I had turned off of. The bike was not starting, and my mind was going crazy trying to think about any troubleshooting things.

I made a few phone calls, asking for medical advice and bike advice. I knew I broke two of my fingers at this point, I dont think I have ever felt such pain in my life - amazing in a bad, bad way!! My right foot was, and is, in such pain that I dont know of what. I really dont think I broke it, but something is not right.

The bike appeared toast and I didnt know what to do stranded in the middle of no man’s land. I kicked all the sand and gravel out of the bike and starting working through it. I did a good visual inspection, looking for leaks or electrical issues that may have been grounded off. The extent of the damage was pretty bad, I’ll probably find out how bad tomorrow - granted, it could always be worse.

Armed with some advil in my stomach, guzzling 2 liters of water, and starting to get somewhat calm, I was determined to see what I could do about riding out of there. Duct tape is my friend - used it to duct tape my motorcycle up to keep it together if I could get it road-ready. I took a couple ball point ink pens, and used them to duct tape to my fingers to keep them straight. I didnt want to take my boot off, because I was afraid my foot would be so swollen up that I wouldnt be able to get it back on. I figured I could deal with that later.

I was able to make the bike rideable using a lot of creativity. I had a problem getting my bags secured back on the bike, so I strapped down what I could and backpacked the rest on my body. Off I went…

My original plan was to goto Cheyenne, Wyoming but then the rain came. This was probably some of the hardest rain I have ever seen and been in. I pulled off at a gas station to shelter myself, but after 30 minutes, it didnt let up so I knew I had to go. What sucked is I was unable to wear a glove on the right hand, so the rain just stung and pierced my hand.

So with my body duct taped up, my motorcycle duct taped up, 2 broken fingers, one very bad right foot, missing one glove, backpack on back, in the downpouring rain, I pushed onward for another 4 hours finally arriving at my final and original destination - Colorado Springs, Colorado. The bike is in the garage, and I finally got a shower, and I’ll be going to the hospital tomorrow morning to get checked out.

The last 4 hours of riding probably wouldnt have been too bad if it wasnt for the 2 fingers and the nonstop rain. It was just miserable and i would never wish this upon my worst enemy.

For now, rest is what I need. I just wanted to let everyone know what happened and we’ll see how things play out from here.

The Reason

Every summer, I try to go on my annual motorcycle road trip across the United States. The first destination, every time, is always to visit my parent’s gravesite. It’s been over ten years since their passing, and so I try to make it out every year to pay my respects.

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