how fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes...

today was crazy. scary. nuts. well. really shook me up.

i decided yesterday to ride the north ogden divide. first time this year. of course. since chalk creek and little red riding hood are quite literally the ONLY two rides that i've been on this summer. after yesterday's speeding ticket i decided that it was high time to get in shape. today was the day and the divide was the place. since i slept in until NOON i finally hit the road at 2pm. I started at the bottom of the divide around 3pm.

the climbing began. to begin on more intermediate terrain would have made much more sense. but then i wouldn't have felt as tough as i felt climbing the divide. and i wouldn't have been there to help ted. both of these things were important to me today. though i couldn't have known that latter.

i slowly. but surely. climbed. i stopped frequently to relax my chest which felt like it was being held in a vice. weird. out of shape. i ate a lot of shot blocks. drank a lot of water. did all the right things. and kept pushing on. as i approached the half way mark of the climb i came to a gravel pull out and stopped. to rest, of course. it was probably my third rest stop of the climb so far. but i was half way there now. making progress. as i stood on the side of the road with my thoughts. drinking my water. eating my shot blocks. i looked up at the very same moment as a loud POP was heard.

meet ted.
i saw a man on a bike. i saw his bike shoot out from under him at the sound of the pop. he followed the bike. sliding across the pavement. through the gravel. coming to rest when he collided with the side of the mountain. i saw it. i saw it all. before he had even come to rest my adrenaline was pumping. i ran across the road to him. "are you okay?" he groaned as he stood up. he hadn't lost consciousness. i was thankful for that. his elbows were scraped and bleeding. not bad considering. he looked great otherwise. said he was okay. a motorist who had also seen the accident had turned around and come back to help also.

ted was bummed about the blown out tire and his bleeding elbows but said he'd just call his wife to come pick him up. he called his wife. didn't give us any decisive information on the phone call or it's contents. mr. motorist asked if we could call a medic just to give him a once over and make sure that everything was okay. ted said no. he was fine. his wife was coming.

then it began.
"did i wreck my bike?" "yeah ted. you had a blow out."
"where are we?" "the north ogden divide." "that's what i thought." (less than a minute after he'd called his wife and told her where to come and pick him up on the divide.)
i looked at mr. motorist and we agreed that we needed medical help. i began to worry for ted. ted was alone. except for strangers. probably scared. he couldn't remember anything. poor guy. i thought about how frightened i would be. and how badly i would want my loved ones to be with me. to lessen the fear. while mr. motorist made the 911 call i stayed with ted. he asked me 4 more times if he'd wrecked his bike. i got tears in my eyes. was he going to be okay? how bad were his injuries? really. was he scared? i was so concerned about that. then ted called his wife again.

meet joan.
when ted called her again, having no idea that he'd just talked to her, she knew something was wrong. i could hear her through the phone. ted handed me the phone. "she wants to talk to you." i told her we'd just called the ambulance. they were on their way. i could hear them crossing the valley below. i related ted's condition to her as honest as possible. without causing undue fear. i did the best i could. then joan told me. "i'm sending our son over from huntsville. don't let them take him in the ambulance. we don't have a job or health insurance." oh boy. i cared about these strangers. it's kinda weird what happens to the human heart when you find yourself in such a situation.

the ambulance and paramedics arrived. i told them what joan told me. they did their thing. they seemed concerned about ted's injuries. i kept hoping against hope that ted's son would get there. i felt like ted needed someone. someone he loved. someone he knew. to comfort him. the medics asked him lots of questions. i think the only thing he got right was his name. he was at a loss for all of the others. "who is the president of the united states?" "i forget." the paramedics told ted several times that they needed to take him to the hospital. he said he was okay. just needed to call his wife to come and pick him up. so the paramedics called his wife. whew. took the pressure off of me. they told joan all about ted's condition. she got it. it was relatively serious.

they loaded ted up on the gurney. still no son. joan was meeting him at the hospital. ted was still alone. probably in a fair amount of pain. but he began to show signs of humor as they loaded him into the ambulance. ted will probably be okay. but i haven't stopped wondering about him since i watched the ambulance take him away. as i pedaled the rest of the way up the divide i looked into the faces of all the motorists coming down the divide. one of them must have been ted's son. i know he and joan live in layton. maybe i'll take him a gift certificate to bingham's cyclery. to help him buy a new helmet. since his cracked down the middle like an egg. coulda been his noggin. thank god for helmets. thank god ted was okay. and thank god that mr. motorist and i were there to help him out.

rock on ted.