Day 19: Crash landings

July 1, 2015

Its one of those things where you are kicking yourself because no one was taking pictures.

I told you about Neal and Caroline yesterday. Well they rode with us to Ledbury and that morning we were on this little back road coming down a hill towards a creek that covered the road with no bridge. Neal must have gone through fine and Steph as well. I was about 30 yards behind Caroline and she started crossing and her wheels slipped out and down she went in water that was just deep enough to cover her while laying in it, which she was at that point because she crashed sideways into the water.

From that moment, as far as I was concerned, all river fording was off so I braked hard and Steph went over to see if Caroline was okay, which she was aside from being a bit shaken up. Except I saw her glasses floating down the river towards a little waterfall. So I ran into the river, which was a bit over ankle deep, with my bike, and got the glasses just before the little falls and all I wanted to do was get the hell out of there because my feet were now soaking and cold, so I move to my right into shallower water which happened to be the flooded road where Caroline fell and where the logical crossing was, when I heard, "Karen get out of the way!" or something to that effect because there was a lot going on and I really don't recall the exact words...

....but the next thing we know Leo went down trying to avoid me in the same place Caroline had gone down.

He had been further behind taking off his jacket, or something, and didnt see the chaos that ensued 30 seconds prior.

"You really fell hard," Steph later said to Leo. "I was sure you broke your collar bone."

But he didn't break his collar bone, though he was scraped up a bit, as was Caroline, and they both were soaking wet. But being born in England, cold and wet is a minor inconvenience, plus there is all that "stiff upper lip" stuff the English are famous for, even though Leo is technically French now, though I assume he has retained the best of both cultures?

It was only then, however, when everyone realized they were okay, that Caroline said, "Did anyone get pictures of that?" And we were all disappointed that no one had.

They more or less dried off but not really which didn't matter because after a lunch stop picnic of ham sandwiches it started pouring rain. But we are in England and thats normal so you just ride. Right?

Except I was thinking, "this kind of sucks, but I cant say anything or talk about my feelings because I am from California and need to represent myself in a respectable manner and make a good showing for Americans in general and not look like a totally idiot and moan about the rain, which I am sure there will be more of this trip and I better get used to it and shut my yap...". So it was head down and stiff upper lip for me too.

The rain lasted about two hours and then, out of nowhere, the sun came out. From then on it was beautiful!

We got into Ledbury late, around 7pm, had dinner in an Indian restaurant, and sometime during the conversation about the day, someone who wasn't me said something like "that was a pretty nice day except for the afternoon and that rain. That was awful!" To which everyone agreed.

So, there you have it. I am not the big baby I thought I was. No one else liked the rain either. And truth be told when all was said and done, and aside from the crashes, it was a pretty good day.

There are a hell of a lot of sheep around here. They sure can be pretty though.

There was some pretty coutry side to see...

Neal and Steph at A river crossing before THE river crossing I refered to earlier

This was RIGHT after The Crossing. You would never know that Leo and Caroline went down. It is very stiff upper lip like

Neal riding in to one of the little towns we passed through

I forgot to mention our ferry crossing that connected one little back road to another. We didn't have room for all of us in the tiny little boat and had to make two trips.

Just before ferry sailed. Here is a picture of Leo and Steph taking a picture of me...

The sun came out at the end of the day! :-)

Sad and interesting memorial. Look at bottom.

Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 618 miles (995 km)

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