07/12/2008 - Ribs and Fish

This Saturday evening at 29 dreams they had a dinner special for ribs and catfish, right up my alley, So since Shawnette had a photo shoot and needed me to be gone I called a ride for the Southern Cruisers. The ride was fairly simple, take off around 1PM and end at 29 for dinner. It started raining off and on early that day so I was not a bit surprised when only 2 folks showed up for the ride. I remember when we first started this club we were known for riding in questionable weather, hence the name Noreasters, named after the storm, but today the mere mention of rain in a forecast can destroy a ride, but for my purposes these two guys would make it count on the mileage log. So off we went, Naturally since many bailed on the ride we never saw a drop of rain, it’s actually fairly simple to stay dry in the summer in Alabama, just don’t drive under the puffy black things in the sky, This day there was plenty of sunshine to be under and its pretty easy to do that on a bike. We rode East until we got to Oxford then headed south. I was actually wanting to take this road I found on the map but naturally it turned out to be a dirt road so lacking any alternative routes south I went down 21 through Talladega and on toward Logan Martin Lake. We stopped for a break at the dam where there is always a mess of folks in the parking lot. There was a fellow on a sports bike there when we arrived and he sped off after a few minutes. A few minutes after that some guys towing a boat came by and asked us if we had a cell phone. They said “Somebody must have thrown this boy out of a pickup or something cause he’s on the side of the road all bloody” All three of us immediately knew it was that fellow who just left. We took off and found him about a half mile up the road. He was pretty fouled up, he claimed someone had run into his lane, but they were long gone, he exited the road in a curve, the bike ended up impacting a tree that had grown just beyond a barbed wire fence. The bike was on the other side also, apparently this guy who said his name was John Hubble had crawled back over or through the fence. I don’t know what all he hit, we found his helmet in a bush, but his head was gashed pretty bad in several places and he had rash all over him. He likely had some broken ribs, who knows what all, we called for help and eventually the paramedics etc showed up. By that time he was sort of going in and out, They began prepping him to be air lifted to UAB. Anyway, knowing no way to be of any help after the pro's got there I just looked at the two guys with me and said “Well, who’s hungry” so we took off to 29 and arrived on the dot at 5PM. We ate a great dinner and sat on the porch till dark just chewing the fat. It was a GREAT day.