I would like you to meet...

...My new eye candy. This is the Honda NT700v.

Weighing in at below 600 pounds and still getting 250 miles between gas stations this little feature rich tourer is next on my short list. Available with ABS, standard with integrated bags, although small, available trunk kit, proven shaft drive and liquid cooled this cool little ride will eat up the short rides and will yearn for the long miles as I work up to the endurance stuff.

Now to pay for it. Why don't I start between the couch cushions and you check in the car cup-holders.

For now...

May 27th at around 2:40 in the afternoon I was struck broadside by an SUV as I traveled through an intersection.

I blacked out upon impact and the following is as told by the eyewitness that had to make evasive maneuvers in order to miss me. And I thank him for not giving me a second blow. The bike and I ripped the front bumper off of the SUV in the impact and glanced off in the general direction I was traveling for about 100 feet. The front wheel clipped the curb and cartwheeled into a dirt ditch and I went the opposite direction, rolling like a log 12 or 13 times before coming to a rest.

Paramedics responded and evaluated my condition. I was stable and waited in an ambulance while the emergency workers spoke to dispatch to decide which trauma hospital would best be able to handle my case. CareFlite arrived on scene and transported me to Methodist hospital in Dallas.

After a brief stay in the ER I was taken for xrays/CAT scan and then on to surgery to address the injury to my foot. During the accident it appears that my left foot peg shattered and then skewered my foot, ripping the ligaments and tendons form the bones and pushing them out the other side. The heel of my foot was severely damaged and there was a partial de-gloving of the skin as well. I took in 3 units of blood during the two hour surgery and was returned to a recovery room. I needed two more units of blood to catch me up from the loss and I was left to heal.

Over the next two weeks the orthopedic and plastic surgeon deliberated on how they would stop the foot from decaying, as it was doing so very rapidly. I was put into hyperbaric therapy for 2 hours every day in a vain effort to deliver more oxygen directly to the tissue. I underwent another two hour surgery to clean out the bad tissue to give the healthy tissue a chance.

In the third week I was told that they were out of ideas and besides something miraculous happening, we would have to remove the foot. 3 days later a plastic surgeon doing a surgery in the hospital was told about my case and came to have a look.

This surgeon didn't see any reason to remove the foot and was prompt to cancel all the weird treatments and took me into another two hour surgery where he removed anything that even looked like unhealthy tissue. The following week I was in a 12 hour surgery where the surgeon removed a muscle from my abdomen, to form into a new heel, and a skin graft from my thigh the size of a standard piece of notebook paper.

After 5 weeks in the hospital and another 5 weeks at home I returned to work in a wheelchair. Walking is in the very near future and I will make a full recovery.

I was wearing durable pants, helmet, goggles, and boots. I will walk away from this with no lasting ailments. In the future my equipment will stay a priority ahead of what type of bike I ride.

Somebody was looking out for me and I will always take preventative measures including safety equipment and rider training technique refreshers to make his job a little easier.

Ride safe and for crying out loud, please, watch for bikers.

You call that rain?

Today in the greater Dallas area we had one of our more rain soaked afternoons of the year. I decided to leave work a little early and get in some wet weather condition experience on this, still rather new to me, bike.

I probably underestimated the rain but I got a chance to test out a great feature of my tank bag I didn't know about when I picked it out. A hide away rain poncho with see through top. The rain also gave the bike a good rinse, knocking bugs off that had been on there for weeks, since my weekend ride around East Texas.

And they fished

A huge thank you to Ronnie and Mary for letting us share a wonderful quiet weekend with them at Cedar Creek Lake. Thanks also to Mike and his wife Patricia for inviting us and to Rick and Camila for being there to share with us all.

It has taken a week for me to get to post a few pics and talk about our weekend away. As can be read in an earlier post Tawnya and I were without the boys for a weekend and got to enjoy some peace and quiet. Saturday night we were weary from our ride but soon perked up at sharing some cold ones with old friends, getting to know a few acquaintances better, and meeting new friends.

We drank and talked, laughed and fished long into the night. In the morning Mike made buttermilk biscuits from scratch to go with our bacon and eggs. Ronnie netted us some shad and we were off again with lines in the water.

The only person that didnt catch something didnt wet a line that weekend, here are a couple of the spoils!

I mangled a few fillets for the experience and Ronnie ran us through the rest, giving freely of any knowledge he could add along the way. In the end everybody pitched in and we had a fish fry supper with the 7 pounds of fillets that had been out of the water less than 45 minutes.

A meal outdoors with a view of the lake, none of us will soon forget. I hope to return soon with new friends and old alike.

Action photos!

Since Tawnya was able to join me this past weekend I wanted her to practice getting some action shots. I am sure she will get some great ones as she gets more comfortable. To date Tawnya's longest ride had been about an hour and a half, and that was on the back of a Goldwing. She persevered through 401 miles and was still comfortable enough to get some pics, here are a few.