Day: 76
Date: 17/06
City: Mammoth Lakes, California
Miles ridden: 226
Cumulative miles: 6333

This morning we packed the car, turned the Spot on and started moving again. Even though this was ‘only’ in the car, it felt good.  After a while we stopped for fresh Strawberries, this time we bought the big punnet ,since we had space in the car.

We stopped at the entrance of the Yosemite National Park just to take a couple of pictures.

When we left the car, we notice how hot it was outside. We had climate control in the car and it had kept the temperature around 25 degrees, so we didn’t notice how the temperature increased during the day (it was in the high nineties).

On the way to the Yosemite Valley, we came across a couple of beaches, with this weather and lunch time, we stopped at Sentinel Beach for lunch and a swim. Well Sigrid had a swim. My arm was a good excuse, I could only put my feed into the, uhm, ‘fresh’ water. (It was freezing!)

After that we had some lunch in a shady spot at the beach, the view was just great.

After sitting on the beach for a while, we went back to the car park and continued to the visitor centre. We had a look at a film about the history and the nice spots of the Yosemite Park, then we had a look at the exhibition about the park. There we found a sign of a Pika, the same animal that Simon saw on his Mt. Everest trip.

We discovered that the waterfalls were not far away, so we walked to the waterfalls. It was a nice walk, but it was reasonably warm. Arriving at the bottom of the falls, there was the option to have a swim. The left picture is the lower part of the fall, the small colourful dots at the bottom are people J, and the right one is the top of the fall. It is possible to hike to the top within a day.

Sigrid didn’t bring her bathers with her, and somehow I got into trouble for this 😉
After a nice stroll back to the car, we were heading off to Mammoth Lakes. We left the park through the Tioga Pass, which was the pass that Wombat and Val were excited about, and they are right. It is a really beautiful pass, with great views back into Yosemite Valley, and crystal clear lakes appearing out of nowhere

and polished granite cliff faces.

We decided not to stop at every outlook, since the outlooks were on the opposite side of the road. The road was very curvy and there was no visibility ~ if a car or truck was approaching on the opposite site there was no way to see it. That was the moment when we decided to come back the same way and then take plenty of pictures. In some places there were still patches of snow.

At the parks exit the street descended steeply and the view very much reminded us of the Himalayas in India (on the left hand side there is a bit of the road visible).

This road ended at Mono Lake, what a nice day.

Day: 73 – 75
Date: 14/06 – 16/06
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 61070

I talked to our friend Klaus from Germany yesterday and he suggested spending time in Europe until the hand healed enough to ride again. Good idea! But it will depend on the post treatment ~ specifically if it would be covered in Europe as well. So we tentatively planned a trip to Europe for two month. After doing the boring math, it turns out that yes, it would be feasible. I wouldn’t be much more expensive than staying in the USA because accommodation would be free and we could get a car from our friend.

The thumb was still numb, so we made another doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. We went to the BMW shop before the doctors appointment to have a look for new gear. We got the most unenthusiastic salesman ever. He tried to sell us some nice BMW trousers which were apparently made from Dynatec, which is  BMW abrasive resistant material, similar to Kevlar. Just as we nearly ordered a pair, we found out that these trousers were made out of the lower abrasion resistant material ‘Cordura’.  Nope, I’ve used the abrasion protection of Kevlar before, I’d rather not settle for less.  After checking out the other gear nothing really appealed to us, so we left. No business for them today.

We drove to the doctor. She had a look and was happy with what she saw. She said the numbness could take some time before it passes. The bad and good news is, the post treatment has to be done by the surgeon who did the operation. That means we don’t have to pay for it ourselves but we can’t go to Europe for the two month.  Ah well, back to the drawing board… But I did get a new bandage, shorter than the previous one! I can move the arm better. The next appointment is next Friday, which gives us the opportunity to travel seven days 🙂

The next day was pretty uneventful. We setup the tent in front of our hotel room, just to see if there is other damage.

There’s the five small holes in the bottom, which we fixed it temporarily with gaffa tape.

At lunch we got a call from the insurance agent, he asked if we could meet him at the workshop. So we went and talked to him about which parts of the bike should be replaced and what happened at the accident. He would try to organize all parts and they should be there and fitted in roughly two weeks.
We went ‘home’ and started looking for accommodation around the Yosemite Park, but it looks like that prices double for the weekend. So we decided to stay here a day longer here for the same price, and leave on Monday.

So we had a day to spare where we had to move rooms and the rest of the day was just relaxing at the pool.

With nothing else to do, I tried some new protective gear for the head, maybe I can use thisinstead of buying a new helmet?

Otherwise we planned the next couple of days. The plan is that we drive through the Yosemite Park, then up to Lake Tahoe, stay there for a day and get back to Modesto via Yosemite Park.

Day: 71 – 72
Date: 12/06 – 13/06
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 61070,

Our doctor’s appointment was at 14:00 so we drove to the shop that will look after my bike. The owners were very nice and we chatted about their and our bike trips and we had a look at new bike gear.
It took longer than we expected so we had to hurry to get to the doctor. After we arrived, the nurse took the splint off (ouch, every movement really hurt!).
The doctor had a look at it, asked questions about the accident and the emergency treatment, had a look my hand – the fingers looked like spongy sausages at this time. She looked at the x ray from the emergency department, and decided that I need an operation as quickly as possible and submitted me for surgery at 19:00 the same day. I mentioned that we don’t have approval from the insurance for that and that the insurance was thinking to send me home. The doc said no time for that, by the time I get home and get surgery organized nerves might be damaged. So she called the insurance and asked for approval. We went to the hospital and were sitting in the waiting room until 18:00, waiting for the insurance approval.

The doctor submitted me then via the emergency department, which should be covered by the insurance. I was quickly prepared for operation and got knocked out at 19:30. Sigrid had at least two hours’ time eat something before she had to come back to pick me up. All went well (At least I think so, I mean, I’m writing the blog J), and I woke up around 22:30. The pain killer stopped working and I was suddenly in excruciating pain at the elbow and fingers, but not at the wrist. The nurse explained that this is be normal. Anyway, I got some happy pills and after 30 minutes the pain was sort of under control.

Day: 72
Woke up a bit later, most of the fingers felt fine, still had a numb thumb, but I could move all of my digits slightly. I felt it was time to have closer look at my protective gear. We spread it out in front of our room. The helmet looked pretty scratched, I’m particular happy that I had a full face helmet, otherwise my chin would be a bit shorter. The only bit that I could remember from the accident was how the right side of the visor got scratched – it really felt like slow motion.

Looking at the jacket, it showed a couple of abrasion and even holes. After looking at the jacket I was really happy that only the wrist was broken. Below are pictures of the right shoulder, right front pocket,

Left shoulder, front pocket and the left arm.

And a couple of torn bit on the back, the dragon jeans save my bum! J
I have only some minor abrasions where there was no kevlar, the back was completely covered in Kevlar. The white spots are the places where the Kevlar protected the skin.

The boots are the only gear that survied, they only sustained a couple of scratches.

In the evening we called Simon and wished him a happy birthday. It’s the first time that we are not with him on his birthday, which felt really strange…

Day: 68 – 70
Date: 09/06 – 11/06
City: Modesto, California
Miles ridden: 0
Cumulative miles: 6107

The night was short and I wasn’t really interested in breakfast but we went anyway. I looked around a bit when we were walking to the breakfast room. The hotel looked really nice, particularly the pool and the spa, but that didn’t seemed to be important this morning. All the tasks on hand and the unanswered questions made my head spin:
Call bike insurance, call travel insurance, find out where our bike went (In all the turmoil Sigrid put the business card of the tow truck driver into my top box, but my bike went onto the tow truck yard), get our hands on the police report, make an appointment with a surgeon, find an alternative means of transport that fits into our budget… Do we still need a budget? Is that the end of our trip? Does the travel insurance cover the treatment here? And so on, and so forth.

Anyway, that was the first of many following breakfasts where I didn’t have to do much, everything was provided by Sigrid. Hrm, it’s not all bad after all J.

After breakfast we started to prioritise the tasks at hand. It was Saturday, so there wasn’t  too much we could do since police station, towing company and the orthopaedic centre where closed. So I did the only sensible thing. I took painkillers and slept for the rest of the day.
Sunday morning Sigrid informed everyone – our family, our friends and the bike and the travel insurance, of the accident. The travel insurance indicated that I might have to come back to Australia to get the operation done since it was not an emergency anymore. That would be the end of our journey, a bit short for my taste. I don’t want to go home yet, but I can see the insurance point L.

We started to figure out if there would be any possibility to continue our journey, and came up with a couple of options. It all depended when the wrist would be operated on. Sigrid organized a car as of Monday for a couple of days and I, well, I slept most of the time. I’m guessing it might have something to do with the strong pain killers.

Monday morning, we called the orthopaedic practise that we got referred to from the hospital. There was no appointment available for the week for the recommended doctor, but with another doctor the earliest one would be on Tuesday. We took the Tuesday appointment. Around noon the car rental company picked us up and we got a good size car and were mobile again.

In the meantime we figured out where my bike was towed to, so we made our way to the place to pick up some of my stuff.  Sigrid actually took my clothes at the time of the accident, which I wouldn’t have thought of at all. Looking at the bike really brought home how lucky I was: The grinding marks at the windscreen brackets, the mirrors and the lid of the tip box…  The bike must have flipped over.

The windscreen completely disappeared, must have been left at the accident scene. Other than that, most of the damage was on the left hand side, which coincides with my broken wristJ. The plastic of the Bark buster hand guard was ground through but the aluminium bar did its job and protected the lever.

The damage on the left side: The tank had some scratches (cosmetics); the gear shifter was bent – this was the only bit which needed fixing to make the bike drivable again – And the left rear indicator was broken,

the pannier lock was ground down and the pannier was leaking water on one corner – each pannier is a tank and could hold 3L of water –

The gear rack had some grinding mark from where the pannier dislodged from the bike

The bash plate and the top box had some grinding marks as well.

On the right hand side there was hardly any damage, the only bit was a small grove on the tank from the handlebar, but there was no hole so it is more cosmetic as well.

Our tent and a dry-bag holding our heated vests, gloves and other riding gear were on the pillion seat. The dry-bag was fine,

but the tent bag lost the bottom and the tent had holes. As we found out later it has actually five small holes on the tent floor.

So after having a look at the bike, I was keen to get back to the place of the accident, since I still haven’t figured out what happened. Sigrid navigated us back to the place. It was easy to find, since there was still the pillow on the side of the road. Maybe it’s a permanent fixture for motorbikes riders ;).
Looking at the road, it had a lot of snakes and track grooves, but nothing that we had not encountered before with the same speed and luggage, so I’m still puzzled as to what actually happened.

The most annoying discovery was that roughly 50m after the location of the accident the snakes and the track grooves stopped, so if I had controlled the bike for another 3 sec……..

Ok when Bjoern posted his account of what had happened I realised that it played out a bit different for me.

We were traveling from San Francisco to Twain Harte. We had been on the road for a few hours already and the traffic was very slow. This was due to the fact that we asked the GPS to avoid Highways. So in the end we changed these settings and set off again after a coffee stop.
Finally some open road! And an overtaking lane! 😀

So off we went, overtaking a big white SUV. After overtaking Bjoern moved back into the right hand lane. There it looked like he wanted to joke around as he appeared to move the bike from side to side. I realised that it was no joke as the movements increased and then he went down. .. My heart stopped. I saw him coming off and rolling to one side, I can’t recall what the bike did. I stopped and ‘parked’ the bike on the yellow lines separating the oncoming lane. Then I ran back shouting “oh no oh no” or something similar into my helmet. Huffing and puffing, because it was on a slight hill I finally reached him. I was soooo relieved when I found him there, lying on his back but fully responsive. Two men were around him and talking to him . They appeared to know exactly what to do. And they assured me that an Ambulance had been already called. One of them proceeded expertly to remove the helmet and a cushion appeared from nowhere to be put under Bjorn’s head.

So, looking him over it appeared that he was ok, just the hand did look a bit mangled. Everyone insisted that Bjoern lay still until the Ambulance came. I went back and parked my bike a bit better on the side of the road. Police arrived earlier than the ambulance and asked me for papers, most of them I could provide them with. They asked me what had happened and I told them as best I could. I suspected that something went wrong with the tire we had replaced this morning. They went over to the bike and put it upright, but could not find anything wrong with the tire. They arranged for a tow truck to be called. Then the ambulance arrived, they cut open Bjoern’s shirt and trousers to check if there were any other injuries.  Meanwhile, he had the nerve to complain about his shirt!
Luckily they did not find anymore, phew…. They proceeded to put Bjoern on a board and transport him to the Ambulance vehicle. There they measured his Blood pressure and were about to call a helicopter to transport him the hospital because it was so low. I told them that this is quite normal for Bjoern when he is under stress or in pain. They measured again and it had got a little better. So now they wanted to bring him to the hospital, but could not take me with them.

I had to wait for the tow truck. In that time I rearranged our boxes so that I would have the clothes and papers with me. But all the camping gear and the tools would remain with the bike on the tow truck. Putting the bike on the truck proved a strenuous task for the two policemen who had to hold it for quite some time before the truck driver had it secured. The tow truck driver gave me a card with the details where I could get access to the bike over the coming weekend and drove off. The policeman helped me with my bike – I had parked it in an unfortunate spot where I could not get it lifted up again – and then drove in front of me to lead me to the hospital. In the hospital the paperwork started again and then I could finally see Bjoern.

The news was that everything was ok, but his left wrist was badly broken. Unfortunately they did not have an orthopaedic surgeon in this hospital but they would transport Bjoern to the hospital in Modesto. We waited for a couple of hours then Bjoern was transported by ambulance to the other hospital. The Paramedic assured me that she would drive slowly and I could follow them on the bike. That was a bit scary because by now it was dark outside. Off we went and reached the other hospital without incident after approx. 20 min.

More paperwork, then a doctor looked Bjoern and his x-rays over. Then the paramedic appeared again and brought my keys which I had lost on the car park at the other hospital. People are just great 😀

The doctor then told us that the orthopaedic surgeon had gone home for the night. Bummer… So they would do a reduction by which they move the bones to their original location without operating on it. They proceeded to give Bjoern some narcotics which did not have the desired effect for a while. Bjoern would count to them in English and Spanish just to make sure that they don’t start too earlyJ. Finally he was out. The medicos pulled and pushed while Bjoern politely asked them to refrain from poking him… Even though he was out cold 😀
When they were finished they did another x-ray and told me that it was limited success only, but they put his arm in a splint. They wanted to send us home under the proviso that we would be there for an appointment on Monday morning. Oh, good news, but it is 1:30 at night…where do we get accommodation? A social worker from the hospital arranged accommodation for us at the Ramada Inn in Modesto and a taxi fare for Bjoern. So I donned all my motorbike equipment again and followed the taxi to the hotel. There we settled into a nice room, and I went off again to find a 24h pharmacy, unsuccessful… It was now 3:30 and I hoped that Bjoern’s painkillers would hopefully last until the morning.

Everything looks better in daylight, Bjoern is still here, with what we really have to call minor damage. We both went for breakfast, then off I went to the pharmacy nearby as Bjoern and I slept for a while 🙂

The first post from the USA