Determined to give it another try, I brought in all my clothing and food the day before. Everything was set and I got up and got on the road. Seemed to be doing better than the first ride. Even saw grandma outside while she waited for my uncle to take her to the casino Then it all went sour. Just a mile from work I look a lovely spill on a very busy bridge. Turned left and my tire got stuck in a railroad track going across the street. I've seen it talked about on here plenty of times, but now I know how evil these things are first hand. I left a bit of skin on the road and my wrist was in immediate pain. First instinct was to make sure there wasn't a car about to plow into me and then I dragged myself to the side of the road where I was repeatedly ignored by both motorists and other cyclists. Nice. Finally, a nice gentleman named Lee stopped to see if I was ok and helped me to the other side of the bridge. After waiting for a boat to pass through (it's a lift bridge), I was able to finish riding to work. Found a first responder, cleaned up the wounds, nearly passed out, got sick, and eventually my boss drove me to the ER. Spent the next 4 hours there, but thankfully the x-rays came back negative on my wrist. Just a nasty sprain and lots of scrapes. Bike's in the shop, but I think it's ok. In no way will this deter me from riding; as soon as I can handle putting weight on my wrist I'll be back out there! And now, blurry cell phone pix!

My right shin, where something gouged into me.


My left shin. Fell on my left side, so this is where the most damage is.


A nice blurry shot of my upper thigh. As my friend said, I have road rash on my ash.


My gloves only cover half my fingers, so the tips got ripped up. These hurt more than any of the other scrapes.


I keep banging my elbow on stuff and it's getting tiring.


ROBO ARM! It definitely helps keep me from moving my wrist, but it really hurts nonetheless and my thumb is quite sore as well. Never realized how much I used my left hand, but the repeated shocks of pain are helping to remind me.


For the parents out there, your job is never done, the worrying never ends. Dad picked me up from the hospital and gave me the "you're still giving me gray hairs!" speech, while mom called later on and told me I was going to be the death of her. I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of people telling me to not ride to work, but with as much as I ride, it could have happened anywhere. I'm glad it wasn't worse and that I had plenty of people to help me.