Battered, but not beaten...

Natureman and I feel like we’ve been in a fight and we honestly didn’t see it coming. Bottom line is that some days one just shouldn’t leave the End of the Rainbow Valley… The day started out cloudy with some dark threatening clouds in the distance… but that didn’t deter my man’s optimistic cycling intentions even after I heard predictions of light afternoon showers and evening rain. When I returned home from Jazzercise and some morning errands, there were those bikes ready to go on the back of his car. Natureman gets an idea and he’s like a dog with a bone… He had also prepared a yummy garden salad (ours really does come from our garden) to win me over and we were off to get on the bike path called 7 Bridges, a 6 mile ride to the Trempeleau Hotel. It’s a scenic hotel situated by the Mississippi famous for its Walnut Burgers. 

BUT… here’s the important ‘but’ - we didn’t make it. As we slowly turned off the main road for the parking area to unload the bikes, we were rear ended and within seconds our car rolled and I watched in slow motion as the front windshield crazed and shattered and said to myself ‘May G-d be with us.’ The car somehow landed back on its wheels ??? All of the front window crunched and the side windows of the car had blown out and glass was everywhere.

I looked over to Natureman and the roof seemed crunched closer to his slumped body but he was calling my name to see if I was OK. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to hear him… I was able to open my side door and get out as he also crawled out through the passenger side. I yelled to the young driver of the other car to call 911. Police and medics were on the scene in minutes. I had wrapped my jacket around Natureman’s lower arm gash where I saw bone and finally got him to lay down even though he insisted he was fine. I was glad that he couldn’t see how bad it was. My hand was covered in glass and blood and remembering my Girl Scouting first aid, I doused it with the bottle of drinking water and held it up high to stop the bleeding. As I lay on the ground, I could see the bikes strewn along the main road a couple hundred yards apart and the totalled car. After an ambulance ride and 4 hours in the ER 43 stitches between the 2 of us, Natureman with almost all of those, we are bruised and sore but happy to be alive. The new driver was charged with inattentive driving… ya think? I think we'll be 'staying put' awhile in the End of the Rainbow Valley...