Day 60: The day I fell off my bike

August 2, 2022 in Pasco, Washington

After the repairs on my bike, it feels brand new! I am truly so impressed with Allegro Cycling. I couldn't wait to get on the road on my beautifully tuned wheels.

I rode with Caroline today, and in no time we ended up as the group in front. Eastern Washington is very dry and very hilly, so we spent a lot of time pedaling hard up hills.

After lunch, the wind picked up like nobody's business. It was easily the strongest wind I've experienced on this whole trip. We took turns being in front to block the wind, and we had to get as low as possible on our bikes to be able to keep moving forward.

The amount of effort it took was comparable to a mountain pass, but much worse when a semi passed. We had to anticipate when they'd be passing and lean as hard as we could to the opposite side of them to avoid being blown over as they went by. Even so, we really had to get low and hold on tight.

At long last, we turned off the windy road and onto a bike path. Even though it had lots of glass and trash on it, it was still better than the wind. We were on and off the bike path a decent bit between the highway and the host.

Well, then I fell off my bike. I've fallen off my bike one other time on the trip, but that time I unclipped my foot in time and it was more of a light tumble with a moderate bonk than a fall. This one was certainly a fall.

(Unfortunately, the only pictures I took today were of my disgusting elbow, so here's one of the enormous Washington sky from another day.)

Caroline was chalking behind me as we got back onto the bike path when suddenly my seat went crooked and off I went into the gravel. By some minor miracle, I only hurt my arm, and pretty minorly. Basically, I cut up my elbow pretty badly and bruised my wrist from landing on it.

Once I got over the shock of being on the ground and my arm hurting, I yelled "Caroline.... I've been hurt" in a very silly voice, which made it much better. We were only five miles from the host, so we sprayed off my bloody elbow with her Camelback and continued on with the group that had just caught up to us.

We were the first group to arrive at the host, which as I've mentioned is a rarity for me, and I was able to snag a (very short) couch.

Today was a hose shower day, but it was the best hose shower of the trip because it was somehow WARM. It was truly lovely.

After a nap, I went off to do the laundry before our take-out Greek dinner. It was not very good.

By the time dinner was over, we were all pretty tired. I was also feeling quite sore from my fall, so off to sleep I went.