and I tell him that him and these "adventure" trips and getting stuff stuck in mountains or rolling down off of mountains in to ravines... i can only repeat my previous suggestion.
Between his adventures and my clumsi-ness (I'll post the Haunted House adventure in a sec & recount my ATV experience too) the child will have no parents to be born to come April 1!
But it was his free spirit that I fell in love with mainly because he wanted me to believe he could never be tamed - uh huh... and we're a month and some change from our 1-year anniversary. Where's that whipcrack sound when you need it? Can I just say that I am BEYOND excited to see if we can eat our redvelvet wedding cake? Anyway, I would never want to change his free spirit for him to be as boring as I am in comparison. And let me not act like I'm the bomb-dot-com. He chose me because for whatever reason - I was trying to pretend like I was Ms. Independent 2004 (the year we met) and that "i didn't NEED no man" - he saw straight through that and realized that all I really wanted was to be his princess. Soooooo YEAH - We've got some pride stuff that we've had to recognize and deal with over time... but we're good now! Truer words were never spoken when whoever said "opposites attract." That is me and Michael to a tee. And we make it work becaues it's fun for us.
ANYWAY... let me tell you about my adventures with Michael. It starts like this -
Entry from:
Sun, Jun. 11th, 2006, 10:39 pm
my first wreck
now, i've wrecked before... but this was a real wreck, not your simple "fall off the bike because you turned the wheel too quickly" kind of thing. I was on an ATV (4-wheeler)... and then it was on me.
so the story goes like this... went dirtbike riding with Michael and his uncle today... the ride was great, the scenery was beautiful (i'll hopefully post the pictures tonight or tomorrow) and I was actually proud of myself for making it up a few questionable areas. I was riding the dirtbike first and was a little shaky becuase of the gravel. So his uncle asked me to switch once we started hitting bigger rocks and less sand... i am definitely a novice. Once I was on the ATV, i was ok... felt a little more grounded and stable... learned to lean into the curves.... pushed the bike to the limits... of 1st gear that is. Learned to use the rear brake wihle going down hills so as not to flip off the ATV in a moment of panic. Things were going well and then it was time to go home. i was feeling pretty ok about the ATV and continued to ride it down the trail... I'd made it up without a problem, going back down should be cake!
however, i did get a little ahead of myself.
Mr. "Master of the Mountains" (that would be Michael) decided on the way down the trail to take a left and go up a small trail and back down around it to the main trail. Sounds just fine and harmless, no? His uncle is following and so am I.
His uncle had this great habit of checking behind him ever so often to be sure I was still coming along. I'd stopped a few times due to the ATV stalling or cutting off on me when I clearly had no idea how to start it back up. This habit would prove to come in handy.
Now, we'd done some pretty tough stuff before... riding through creeks.. riding up hills. I had gotten much more comfortable riding and had kicked it up a notch or two... all the way into second gear while going uphill. And I had basically mastered the whole "uneven ground where you have to balance the ATV's wheels and weight when there's about a 6 inch difference between one side and the other" thing... or so I thought.
Enter dilemma.
As the boys are going up the hill, i'm coming up behind them because whatever the boys can do, then daggoneit, i can do it too! And there was an uneven spot of road - with the left side of the road being higher than the right side, by about 6 inches, in a curve, around this big rock surrounded by grass.
I probably should have stopped and made sure to crawl around it, but i was going at a decent speed and didn't forsee any problems... i'd handled the uneven road thing before and remember, i was a 2nd gear pro. As I was just hitting the bend of the curve, I started to lean to the left side to keep the balance of the ATV... what I didn't see (and what nobody could see unless they were looking for it) was that the rock covered by grass was not what it appeared to be! IT WAS NOT FULLY COVERED BY GRASS!
There was a small piece jutting out from the bottom of the rock, into the trail enough so that when I leaned to the left to balance the ATV, it was right at the time that my left front wheel ran into the jutting piece of rock sending me and the ATV to the right. a HARD right. I saw myself falling almost in slow motion, but I was on the ground really fast too. It reminded me of a few other times that day when I almost lost it, but fixed it in time. This, however, wasn't one of those times.
My head hit first and then my right shoulder and right leg... soon joined by the 1000 lb ATV accompanied by my left leg. As the adrenaline rushed through my system - all I could think was "oh my gosh. i'm stuck under an ATV". my first instinct was to, of course, get OUT from under the ATV and as I tried to find my footing - i realized that all i had to work with was my left foot because my entire right side was pinned by the ATV and my head was in a crazy uncomfortable angle where I couldn't wiggle out from under it. So as i started trying to push up with my left leg - the stupid thing wouldn't move.
Any and all "survival" training that you think you have, does not really kick in until a minute after the incident. i remembered then that I was still conscious, nothing felt broken, my head and my neck hurt, but i could yell. So as I heard his uncle's dirt bike moving (hopefully in my direction) i started yelling "Help! Help!" I felt like a safety video.
His uncle came and used superman adrenaline powers to lift the ATV off of me. Phew. Blasted thing was not on my happy list. And he was yelling at me not to move. I knew I was ok, but apparently in the position I was in, I didn't look ok in the least bit. He thought I'd broken my neck. It really must have looked bad. by this time, Mr. Michael had moseyed his way down to us common folk and wondered what was going on. We filled him in and he asked if the bike and the ATV were ok... trying to lighten the mood.
The potential severity of what had happened had not really hit me, but I was in no real mood for jokes at the moment. My ankle was burning and my shoulder and upper back were not feeling well... my head was still throbbing. I didn't have a concussion though - to my knowledge at least. So it took a minute - again, delayed reactions during times of stress - for the reality to hit me and once Michael came to check on me as his uncle took the ATV back down, i started crying... because as I thought about it, I rememberd that I didn't know if anyone would hear me yelling and I didn't know if his uncle would be looking for me. Personally, I think that I probably would have lasted and maybe even gotten the ATV off of me... but the fact is, you just never know.
So we rode back to the car... me feeling like an idiot for a number of reasons - 1. i scratched up the helmet that is supposedly "mine" but was his brothers as a gift for messing up another helmet. 2. I was worrying that I'd get ribbed for "being a girl" about the accident. I AM a girl... it does happen sometimes. 3. I was hoping i hadn't messed up the ride for Michael and his uncle 4. I was sure that I'd been banned from any and all future adventures on ATVs (not that that would have bothered me necessarily)
This is me telling Michael what happened -
As you can see, the area is beautiful, and this picture is after I've gotten up and dusted off a bit. I was pointing to the areas where my tire tracks where, leading up to that big rock next to my right leg. He still thinks it's funny. I'm not too sure how i feel about it. I mean, i see that it's funny and all, but it's just not something that I would generally enjoy laughing at. personality differences i suppose.
So that was my first wreck. I heard that if you wreck on a dirtbike or 4-wheeler, you're a real dirtbike/4wheel rider. I took a few pics of my helmet and THANK YOU GOD for protective gear!!!
If I hadn't had on that helmet, I might not be writing this journal right now. To see the deep scratches that i put in there and to think about my head having that happen WITHOUT the helment? It's a very humbling experience.
More pics will probably be forthcoming. jUst had to write about this while it was fresh in my memory. I'm sure Michael will have his own version. I hope we go on more rides this summer... i need to improve my riding skills. I'm told that this crash is suppose to be worn as a "badge of honor" - i'll remember that as I'm limping for the next week.
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