Come to Wisconsin

I have been back in Wisconsin since Tuesday morning. It has been fairly slow going these past few days, which is nice. Besides being home to see family and friends, I am closing on a condo in Madison, so that has been taking up some of my time as well.

While Wisconsin is no Hawaii, it is a nice place in its own right. I have been riding (and crashing… more on that in a bit) my brother’s motorcycle for the past few days. I have been trying to take the country roads as much as possible (the bumpy, uneven, and narrow-shouldered roads). Wisconsin is a beautiful and still fairly unpopulated place. The majority of the land around here is varied shades of green. The skies are blue and the clouds white. While it may not have the beaches and ocean, spending an afternoon walking around alone through the fields and woods, eating your fill of mulberries and raspberries, is just as pleasant.

The unfortunate excitement is that I crashed my brother’s motorcycle. This is less than ideal for a few reasons:

1. It’s not my bike. It’s one thing to ruin your own things, but it is especially bad when you borrow something and can’t return it in the same condition. On the somewhat bright side (in a weird way), my brother got his leg crushed by a semi-truck a couple of months ago so he wouldn’t be able to ride it too much anyway. Like I said, that’s not exactly good news, but at least I am not single-handedly killing his summer riding season.

2. It will cost a lot. The only big mechanical problem that I can see is the smashed radiator. I have to figure out how to get it to Madison and get some estimates on how much it will cost to fix. The radiator should only be a few hundred; however, all of the cracks and scratches on the body of the motorcycle are costly. I’m guessing this will be around $2000 for everything. So much for buying that dishwasher for the condo.

3. It’s the least important, and a bit selfish, but now I don’t have a ride for the next week. I think I may have to rent a car. Hopefully I don’t crash that, but if I did, at least the rental insurance would cover that cost.

On the bright side, I am not hurt. I got a couple of scratches on my legs from when I got tossed over the handle bars, but I did a nice front flip and landed on my helmet and riding jacket and safely slid into some shrubs. Luckily, I was wearing full riding gear: helmet, padded motorcycle jacket, leather gloves, long pants, and leather shoes. I may not have fared so well without that. The reason for the crash can be attributed to a multitude of factors. The first being driver error. I was on the very far right side of the road, staring at my surroundings. I was going too fast for that corner, although I wasn't really going all that fast (40mph?). The road was bumpy, uneven, and had some grass clippings on it. The bike's tires were bald and it is not a bike that I am accustomed to. All of these things added up to my having a bad day.

Something really interesting is how clear everything was heading into the crash. As soon as I lost control it was like I had hyper-clarity on what was going to happen and how I needed to react. When I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to recover in time to avoid crashing into the ditch, I slammed on the brakes until I started to slide, then I let off the brakes and steered into the ditch. When the bike dumped over and threw me, I tucked my chin and put my hands at my side at a forty-five degree angle. I did a front flip over the bike, spotted my landing, landed, slid, stood up, and was on my merry way. I scraped my shin, have a small gash on my ankle, and dirty clothes. The worst part of it all is how much it is going to cost to fix the bike. In the end, I am still alive and well, so I can’t complain too much.

Obviously, I wish none of this happened. Since I can’t change that, I have to accept it and deal with the consequences. I am glad it is only bad for the bike, and not my body. After all, it’s just money.