A little more than two months ago, I was involved in a motorcycle accident - no doubt many of you are bored to death of hearing about it, but it really put a different perspective on many things in my life. All I could think of as I was skidding along the pavement after my bike went down was whether someone might be following close behind in a car and whether my AMA life membership was about to expire.

 

Fortunately, it did not. As I stopped skidding I kicked my way away from the bike, got up and ran for the curb. "Holy ****", I thought, "I can RUN!" I felt my arms, hips, legs and everything seemed to be intact. WOW, I was incredibly lucky. Then I got angry - angry with the person who made the left turn into my path of travel causing the accident. I'm still angry, but I'm also thankful.

 

Thankful that there was no traffic on my tail to run me over.

 

Thankful that a good Samaritan pulled his SUV up behind me to protect me and the bike, asked if I was all right and said he saw the whole thing and would stay and give a statement to the police.

 

Thankful that the driver stopped and owned up to what he did.

 

Thankful that the Spokes-Women who were on their way to the meeting stopped, made sure I was all right and rendered hugs and moral support - refusing to leave me alone even though I told them my husband was on his way to pick me up.

 

Thankful to Linda and Dan Sackerman for stopping to make sure I was all right and then snapping numerous pictures of the accident scene with their digital cameras and burning them onto a CD for me. (Yes, an article will be forthcoming.)

 

Thankful that every other biker that passed stopped to make sure I was OK and find out what happened, even though I waved them off and indicated I was fine.

 

Thankful that the Piscataway police officer on the scene did a wonderfully professional job of managing the accident scene and assuring me that those who towed my bike away were motorcyclists themselves and knew how to take proper care of a bike being towed.

 

And perhaps most importantly, I'm thankful that my husband, Charlie, who endures a lot of my idiosyncrasies on a daily basis, without complaint or comment drove up to Piscataway to pick me up and managed to say nothing to my mother.

 

Last month I went to the motorcycle show at the Javits to volunteer at the Women in Motorcycling booth. At one point I took a quick break to seek out the Shoei helmets booth. I waited a moment or two for the Shoei rep to return from a break, then I greeted him and said, "I want to thank you and your company for saving my life." I gave him the Reader's Digest version of the accident and told him that his helmet did a wonderful job of protecting my head as my bike and I slammed down onto the pavement. He had a little bit of a startled look on his face but thanked me for sharing my story.

 

Am I going to quit riding? No way, I enjoy it too much. I may take more looks over my shoulders for escape routes, but I'll still ride. My bike is still in the shop waiting for a few more custom bits being piggy-backed on the insurance repairs. I hope to get it back soon and be back on the Polar Bear circuit.

 

All, please have a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous 2009. See you on the road!

 

--Liz