Randy & Sandra and Amy & Vince joined us for a weekend in mid-June. It was a typical hot June weekend in the mountains, and temps reached near 90 in town. Things started out well on Friday with a relatively short MTB ride on 8 mile road before hitting Mad Jack's for lunch. Sandra hadn't ridden since a crash in February, and it was my first time back on the road (I'd been on the Peloton bike for 1 1/2 weeks already) since my broken ribs at the Dirty Kanza two weeks prior.
All was going well until I came over a hill on the way back and saw Rick off his bike, doubled over and holding his arm. He was saying something to the effect of "we've got to get out of here, I'm hurt bad" and blood was spurting everywhere from his arm. I had him sit under a tree and ended up using my rain jacket to put a tourniquet on his arm for a while because I was afraid he was going to bleed to death right there on the road. Vince wasn't too far behind me, and we sent him back to get the car to pick up Rick. Amy was behind us but was apparently searching for a restroom area, so we waited quite a while. She eventually arrived, the arm had quit bleeding so badly, and I removed the jacket. His bike had malfunctioned--the rear skewer had loosened and the rear wheel had bounced out and locked up just as he went around a corner downhill. His right elbow and hip were trashed.
We finally got the car and ended up at the ER in Alamogordo after failing to find medical care at 3 other places. I'll spare the details of a very unpleasant afternoon, but the crash happened at about 11am, and we made it back home after 7pm and still hadn't even had lunch yet. The rest of the crew had gotten bbq to go for us at lunch and we had finally got to eat. Rick got some stitches in his arm, IV antibiotics, and a tetanus shot, and we got a $6000 bill (after insurance discounts)! :)
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