I've had two bad crashes. The first, my husband and daughter were with me, so I had immediate assistance - I had blacked out briefly, but DH got me back on my bike pretty quickly and helped me get the wounds cleaned up and handled when we got home. I tried not to bleed all over the car. Serious road rash.

The second crash happened in the parking lot as I was dismounting and trying not to crash into my car while trying to figure out those da*n pedal cage strappy things. Oy-vey. I landed hard and heard two women behind me laughing at me. It was pretty embarrassing. I unhooked my trapped foot and got the bike off me enough to get up, then looked around at them. "Uh, are you okay?" one of them asked when she realized I'd heard her and her girlfriend laughing at me. "Yeah, nothing bruised by my ego."

I lied, of course. When I got home and checked my hip, it looked like I'd sat in purple paint.


As for me stopping, I came up on a young mother with a toddler in a back-of-the-bike seat and a three-year-old who'd crashed her little training wheel bike into a sticker bush/cactus off the paved path. The little girl was screaming, the baby was crying, and the mom was frantically trying to calm them both down. Luckily, I had a first aid kit in my bag and I had a clean water bottle, too, so I had her cleaned up quick, and we used the adhesive tape from the medkit to pull out the stickers, then I put Neosporin on her scrapes. The mom was so grateful. I was just happy to help, and I told her that if my own daughter was ever in trouble like that, I'd hope someone would stop to help her, too.

I can't believe people get so caught up in their own ride they pass without even inquiring if someone needs help.

Roxy