Don’t worry everyone Dave is ok. I went to the hospital yesterday because I had a little accident. Let me start from the beginning.
I woke up very early to make it to San Cristo Bal De Las Casas at a decent hour in the afternoon. Mexico was still a sleep when I finally had my bike all packed and ready to go. No one had risen and I was looking forward to having the roads to myself for a little while. I road my bike at a nice pace for a while as the sun slowly came up, first obstacles, The sun was so bright going down the road that I had to slow way down going in to shadows of the morning because I could not see at all and didn’t know if there would be a broken down car in there or not, then as I made my way further down the road, a swarm of bugs came out of no where and they were huge bugs slapping all over me and the bike. I had to put my helmet visor down which sucks when you have glasses on because plastic looking through plastic makes a wierd rainbow color that is hard to see out of. The bugs continued as the sun got higher.
As the sun became less of an element the wind picked up and was furious at something because it about blew me off the road a couple of times. With the wind and the bugs together in the picture I had to slow way down to about 40 mph. The one gust hit me so hard I was so sure I was going off the road I had one leg off the bike ready to jump. I continued slowly make little progress to my destination San Cristo Bal. It was turning from a 10 hour day to more like a 12 to 14 hour day ugh! I pushed on with the bugs gone and in the distance I was clouds, dark clouds moving fast. Needless to say it started to rain as I got closed and further into the mountains. I was feeling comfortable with my pace as slow as it was I didn’t want to get hurt.
Well Phil don’t quit your job just yet it is now all its cracked up to be. I was riding down the road where it cut through a hill and I was use to the wind stopping and then picking up again. When I got to the other side of the hill the wind picked up again for sure but this time more intense then I have ever felt before. It blew me sideways and I as able to slow down just enough before another gust picked me and the bike up and blew us off the road. Not wearing gloves I flew into a thorn bush and got stuck with about 7 thorns in one hand the other was fine. I immediately started to bled all over the place and my hole and was starting to swell. I tried to pic up the bike with no luck because the wind was so strong. So I sat behind it as a guard and watched as my gas leaked all over the place. Finally someone stopped and lucky spoke English. He told me that it was like this everyday for 2 months of the year. The day before the wind picked up a fuel truce and dragged it off the road onto its side. Realizing it was not possible to ride in the wind he offered to take my bike in the back of his truck to a less windy stop about 20 miles down the road. It is extremely windy where I as tossed off the road because what he said was it was where the east and west mountains in Mexico meet they meet with the winds from the Gulf of Mexico and create a funnel where even trucks are scared to drive until mid day when the minds calm for about an hour but even that isn’t always the case.
So we tipped the bike up and I stood at a diagonal because the wind was so strong it would just blew the bike over. I held the bike while he took everything off of it. It took three cars to stop to get 5 guys to lift the bike, usually with no wind it only takes three men. It was unreal how hard the wind blew. Once the bike was loaded he took me to a small town and to a hospital where I would remove the thorns in my hand. With tweezers and a needle. One of them about about an inch straight into my hand. I have pictures but every time I go to upload them there is some different problem then the computer before but I will get them up today.
I made it eventually to San Cristo Bal but not without more fighting with the wind. If it caught me head on going 50 mph it wold stop me dead in my tracks. Boy, did I curse the wind! From one extreme to the next. Hot Hot days on the beach to wind and below freezing in the mountains the next. Anyway, my hand is fine, one sliver is still in there and it will have to work its way out. I have it all bandaged and taken care of with all the right stuff, I have a slight sprain in my wrist and my picky but it feels fine, just a little soar. I am being careful so don’t worry, I head to Guatemala tomorrow, not sure where just yet but I will keep everyone posted. No me gusta viento!
