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| Don Drickey (left) and his wife Jeanne. |
By
Don Drickey
After
retirement from the KDOT Salina District office, my wife, Jeanne, and I moved
to Dumas, Texas, to help with her mother-in–law who lived in the Oklahoma
panhandle. I worked for the Texas Department of Transportation for a couple of
years and retired again.
One
of the things that was good about living in the flat plains of the Texas
Panhandle was the availability of good bicycle routes to ride with good, wide
shoulders to avoid oil field traffic.
Jeanne
and I came back and completed the Bike Across Kansas for five years in a row
from 2010-2014. In order to keep in shape for the next year’s ride, it was
necessary to ride occasionally during the off-season.
One
fine Dec. 17, 2010, we decided to ride a quick 16-mile route out and back into
Dumas. The route passed by a farm where I had been playing “tag” with the
farmer’s dog. I would increase my speed
as we passed by the farm and I was probably doing 18-20 mph as he lay in wait
in the roadside ditch. He would run alongside of me, never crossing in front. This
day he decided to change tactics.
I
remember thinking, “oh crap,” or something similar as he crossed in front of
me.
I
flipped over the handlebars and impacted the pavement headfirst. Jeanne was
behind me and narrowly avoided the pileup.
I
rolled over, sat up and tried to assess the damage. Arms, legs, hips and ribs
seemed intact. I found that I could not stand upright, as the pain was too
great. By this time, a son of a Dumas acquaintance had stopped and offered
assistance and took us to the local hospital emergency room. X-rays showed that I had a broken pelvis and
a separated shoulder. Of course, there was lots of pavement rash on knees,
elbows, chin, etc.
My
bike helmet was cracked and there was no doubt that the injuries could have
resulted in a skull fracture or worse. My expensive bike and the dog were fine!
After
a couple of nights spent the hospital checking for brain injury and a period of
healing and rehab on my hip and shoulder, we were back riding after six weeks.
Lesson
here: Never get on your bicycle without a good helmet, even for a ride around
the block.
Don Drickey retired as the KDOT north central District Engineer in 2007.
