from left: Mike (nice jersey!), Nick (UK), Chuck

I’d like to come back here!

, John (UK), Mike F., Rich

You can get anything you want…

Close up of the wreck

looking down the embankment

Looking down at his car

Nick

They came quickly – very well done

A little scary going down

Hi everyone,

Again I’d like to thank everyone who has been following my posts. Today, I saw something that I will take with me the rest of my life.

This was a very mountainous ride. Seems like we were either climbing or descending and very little flat. Some of you have warned about the treacherous switchbacks and a lot of traffic on the road to Jerome. I was about 2 miles from the first and only SAG stop of the day and had dismounted because a huge wind had broken my momentum up the fairly steep grade. Mike F. had went past be and was about 25 yards up the road. Coming in the opposite direction was a Porsche followed by a HD motorcycle. The Porsche lost it in the turn although it was not going overly fast. The tires went into a skid and then he was basically doing a donut in the rode and swerving directly towards me. At first I was afraid that he’d hit Mike but then he was coming in my direction. I ran to the other side of the road to avoid a potential collision. Now there was a cliff that went down about 30 -40 feet on the side of the road road that I had abandoned. The Porsche was turned completely around, tottered on the edge of the cliff and rolled over 2 over 3 times down the embankment. I shouted for someone to call 911 (Mike did) and ran over to the edge of the embankment. The driver was coming out of the window and yelled that he wasn’t hurt. I asked if anyone else was in the car and he said “no”.

By this time several other riders had come upon the scene and were trying to get “Nick” to sit or lay down. He was about 35 and was going into Prescott to see a client. He kept saying that he was grateful 1) he didn’t hit Mike or I, 2) that he was ok and 3) that his wife and kids were not in the car. When I saw the car roll down the embankment, I never thought he’d walk away from it.  I have photos and will post. Our Nick (Nick is from the UK) from the tour scrambled down the embankment to retrieve  the victim’s briefcase.

Mike, Nick and I stayed with him until the police and ambulance showed up. I gave him my contact information and hope that he doesn’t have any after affects from the tumble.

Besides that the ride was uneventful. Jerome is a little town nestled on the side of the mountain. Six of our group had lunch at a place called Alice’s Restaurant – the chilled soup (Yogurt, Mango and something else) was elegant. I met a gentleman in town who was a member of the volunteer fire department and he said that he heard our call in to 911. He said they get a lot of calls for motorcycles that do the same thing after spending too much time at establishments that serve adult beverages…

The roads are narrow and curved and the speed limit is often less than 20mph in the curves. I whiteknuckled down the other side into Cottonwood.

All of us on the tour get some awareness of everyone else’s maladies and aches / pains. Some are nursing sore muscles, joints or injuries (such as Tony’s spill). The bane of cyclists is our backsides. You don’t spend hours day on a little saddle with some discomfort in the area you sit. Everyone has cycling shorts with what is known as chamois inside usually made of some high tech material. To prevent friction we all use “chamois cream” and rub it on our backsides. Most of the folks though refer to it as “butt cream” and I often wonder what non-cyclists think when they hear us talking. This morning one of our group remarked that he had the “creeping crud” and he was referring to some type of cold. One of the ladies assumed that he was talking about his nether regions and she said she had some special ointment that works wonders….

Take care all

Chuck