1 Jan 09
3^rd Annual New Year’s Day Ride
Ride Leader's – Curt & Sue
197 miles total

New Year’s Day and Starriders are out to ring in the new riding years.  Plenty chilly this time; temps before kicks up was just in the mid 30’s.  Leathers and layers were the uniform of the day!  Destination: Sadie Mae’s up in Wilkinsville, SC.  Not too long a ride and I had found some snaky new roads to take going up there.  Almost total boondocks so full tanks required. 

We started a bit late but that’s pretty ‘not unusual’ I guess.  Just past Salem’s Crossing we turned off to the first leg of the side road journey.  It was very twisty and somewhat challenging.  The cold had eaten through most everybody’s gloves by then so I was looking for somewhere to pull over but there wasn’t even a church out here!  The one we did pass wasn’t paved so I forged on.   

It was just past this turn where Donna Gibson had trouble in a turn and wound up trying to straighten the curve – which we know is a bad situation about to happen.  Donna and the bike went off the road into a small culvert that yanked the bike to the right but poor Donna kept moving forward; flying into the small clearing there.  Her bike managed to find the small pickup truck parked there and collided with the front left fender. The Good Lord was watching I’m sure because Donna was able to get up and walk; sore and probably in shock.  We were all thankful for this miracle.  Donna’s bike had damage and was not ride able and there was no way we’d have let her ride anyway.

Cajun was quick to volunteer to ride back for his truck & trailer.  Since we had to wait some time for an ambulance to check Donna out I thought we should build a fire; it’d keep us busy and maybe even get us some heat.  We found plenty of dry wood and soon we had a nice campfire, right there at the side of the road.  The fire helped us all.

The ambulance got there fast and did all they needed to get Donna comfortable and soon after a state trooper arrived to make the necessary report.  

Donna proved to be tough-minded and resilient.  She rode with Cajun to Sadie Mae’s and ate; all the while however, the pain from her tumble was getting to be hard to bear.  We made a B-line home to get Donna home as quick as possible so she could get to an ER for relief and a careful exam.

We were all shaken by what happened today while at the same time we made it a very memorable ride.  The Starriders 124 are an amazing bunch. 

Donna, we all hope you are doing a lot better as you read this. 

Curt & Sue