Practical.

Hello!

This is my practical blog post. I love writing the spacious, word-full, meaty thinking blog posts, but they aren't as much fun to read later as the practical posts.

3 1/2 weeks ago I crashed the heck out of my bike. I bent the forks back a good 2+ inches and bent the frame at the head tube. It was gnarly. The story's worth telling.

I had decided to ride my bike from Red Wing to Apple Valley for church. It's about 40 miles of rolling farm-to-market roads, and the day was perfect. I had my Ride:Well jersey on from last year, and it felt real good to look over my shoulder and see the stripe on the sleeve.

About 12 miles out, just as I was entering Miesville (home of the Mudhens), I decided to shake my feet out. I had built the bike up the night before and it wasn't set up quite right, so I was getting some numbness in my toes. I slid one shoe out of the cage, slipped off the seat, and leaned forward with most of my weight on the handlebars.

But as I was rotating my ankle, I somehow swung my foot far enough over to kick the front wheel. The jolt, combined with my weight being on the handlebars, caused me to sway back and forth. I realized I was going to crash, so I looked up to see where I was going. And then I saw it, and thought,

OH NO. A MAILBOX.

I hit it straight on. There was a loud BANG, and I flipped over the bars and turned a somersault in the air before landing softly on my head in the tall grass beside Highway 61.

I blinked and realized one of the lenses had flown out of my sunglasses. After standing up and shaking myself out, I decided I felt fine. My bike looked fine too, on first inspection. The mailbox, on the other hand, was leaning drunkenly to one side. I beat the crap out of that mailbox.

Then I held my right hand up and realized I wouldn't be riding any more that day. Blood was flowing from under the index finger of my cycling gloves. I slid the glove back and saw a nickel-sized flap of skin move with it. As I started walking toward town, I realized I had smoked the mailbox pole with the side of my knee and had a Grade A Extra Large goose egg rising on my leg.

The local gas station gave me a first aid kit, and my Mom came and picked me up (thanks Mom!). It all worked out in the end, but I'm going to have a huge scar on my hand.

I've put the parts from the broken bike on an old Schwinn Traveler I've been using as a commuter bike. Binder Sandblasting here in Red Wing stripped the paint off ($10!) and it's now sporting a proper coat of flat black spray paint. I love it. All the Campagnolo parts from the old bike look sweet against the black, and work like new, which is saying something for bike parts with six or seven thousand miles on them.

The route's been coming together. I've been doing the maps for our daily route, and I'm realizing we've set ourselves quite the Tour. I expect lots of long days with traffic and long days with climbing. Both tend to wear you out, so I'll be needed an extra portion of God's grace.

I hope you enjoy reading the blog! I'll keep you posted!

Blessings,
Tyler