Souvenir from Ashland, WI

We post mostly the fun stuff that happens on our travels, but some days, the rain must fall as it is in life. My day was July 10th in Ashland, WI. We decided to go out for an easy bike ride from the RV Park through town on the paved Rails-to-Trails path downtown Ashland and then return on the paved path along Lake Superior.

We had stopped at an intersection of the path and a side street. As I pedaled hard after stopping, I heard a snap and felt the bike seat give. Diana ahead describes the sound like a “loud twang” and thought my brakes or chain had seized up. Apparently, what happened was that the metal at the top of my seat post stressed, and the seat broke loose. Because I was accelerating hard, my body went backward when the seat gave, and I pulled the bike over me as I landed on my back on the pavement. Fortunately, my daypack helped break my fall. In the process, the metal seat post sliced my knee. Diana said that I made some sound that she never heard before as I hit the ground. Looking at my knee, I realized that there was no easy way out of this one.

A man standing in front of his business witnessed the whole thing and quickly came over with a roll of paper towels. He asked if I needed an ambulance, and when I said no, he gave us directions to the nearest clinic, saying he would call ahead to let them know that I would be arriving. Once I got situated on the roadside, Diana rode her bike back to the RV Park (only a few minutes away) to get the car. The man came back saying he called the clinic, and they said I needed to go to the hospital ER. Someone came out and gave me a cold bottle of water while I waited. A woman passing by in her car stopped to offer help. It was nice to have lots of friendly, helpful folks around.

At the hospital, they seemed to be expecting us. Apparently, the helpful man called ahead. The ER physician was an avid bicyclist, and she told us about her recent bike touring trip in Colorado while doing much-needed repairs to my knee. In all, I was very fortunate and got only thirteen stitches. The situation could have been much worse.

I'm still wondering why the metal seat post failed in this manner. Never heard of this happening before. Any ideas, let me know.

WARNING! DO NOT CLICK on the below link if the sight of wounds bothers you. If you are cool about that sort of thing, I put together a collage of my knee and the bike seat post.

Follow this link to see the knee collage.

• Rob’t

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