XS Southeast 2013

[JeffH]

Greg Visit

I stopped by to visit Greg today at noon when I got into Asheville, then again tonight for a short visit.

He is doing well and healing about as expected. I've never busted up ribs or innards but can see that it HURTS to TALK and HURTS worse to LAUGH. So I left him to rest and maybe get some sleep. Oh, he so much wants to just sleep uninterrupted for a few hours -and- to chow down on something good.

So, I have is bike loaded up on my trailer and parked outside my motel room. I picked his bike up at the Fire Station in Cashiers this AM. Randy the station chief was very nice, wanted to know about Greg and he gave me a much need cup of hot coffee before departing. If Gregs Doc gives him the release tomorrow then we will pronto start west on I-40 to meet up with John.

Recap: Hurts!! Wants Out!! Healing up OK so far!! Ready to get home!! Hopes tomorrow is the day!!

Jeff

[mrsixtysix]

Bruce and I are finally leaving the Iron Horse....Sorry to hear about Mark's incident. Hope you are feeling better. Glad to hear Greg is healing ....ribs take a while.

We have had some fantastic riding down here since the rally.

Will write more and post up more pics after I get home. Thanks to Jeff and Marty for putting this together again.

[JeffH]

I still also remember that Jeff was riding in front of me during this event and commented, "I don't know how you pulled that one off" once we got to the next stop. He may not remember, but it's part of the slo-mo movie I still have in my head....hehehe.
Somehow, miraculously I got out of harms way, don't ask me how.

Greg, I wish you a speedy recovery and the best heartfelt wishes I can send anyone. I know the thoughts that went through my mind in during those brief scary seconds and I'm sure yours were similar.

Oh, I remember ...... I'll never forget that one.
1st thought was "this ain't going to turn out good" as you went wide in the curve, then when the truck appeared it I don't know how you got the bike back in the lane and by the truck without incident. That was a close one for sure. Pulled that one out of the hat with some great riding technique and a guardian angel I think. Actually once it started going bad you scrubbed off so much speed with hard braking that you could manhandle it back into your lane with a lot of leaning and some finesse yanking on the bars. Phew!! Dropping over a cliff or getting hit by a truck aren't good choices .......

Jeff

[Cobia]

For what it's worth

When I attended the 2011 or 2010 rally, the last one at TWO, I had a similar experience as Greg did, with better results I might ad. I entered a decreasing radius turn a bit too hot and as I started wandering into the opposing lane I looked up and saw a gold Ford Explorer headed right toward me on a collision course. I looked left and saw the precipice (no escape that way), I looked in the Explorer and noticed the driver's eyes had turned to saucers and he was leaning back awaiting the impact, he had nowhere to go to avoid the accident. Then I did the one thing that really saved my a$$, I pushed down hard on the right handlebar to force the bike to go right, that got me back in my lane as the Explorer whooshed by. Mind you, these were not conscious decisions, they were automatic ones. I was just along for the ride. I'm glad my instincts served me well in that occasion. I can still play it back in slow motion in my head with all the other thoughts that go along with it.

For me it pays to read about how to handle emergency situations and visualize myself performing recovery actions. I find that these get stored in my subconscious and surface instinctively when you're in self preservation mode. It has happened to me more that once, trust me it's a good mental exercise.

I still also remember that Jeff was riding in front of me during this event and commented, "I don't know how you pulled that one off" once we got to the next stop. He may not remember, but it's part of the slo-mo movie I still have in my head....hehehe.
Somehow, miraculously I got out of harms way, don't ask me how.

Greg, I wish you a speedy recovery and the best heartfelt wishes I can send anyone. I know the thoughts that went through my mind in during those brief scary seconds and I'm sure yours were similar.

Good luck buddy.

[jetmechmarty]

Back to the ride. Since I was leading the 2nd bunch, it's tough to tell what is going on in the back. The 2nd group was keeping pace with the first and the riders appeared to be well sorted. We did not appear to have any gaps and the corner carving was big fun. We did lose a couple of riders who fell behind. No one waited at the turns for them. Hopefully, we can improve on that next time. Overall, I was well pleased with how well that many motorcycles moved along together at such a pace. My hat's off to Gary and Bruce for herding the first group so well and thus setting a smooth pace for the second group. Let's do that again!

[Bigfoot]

I think that is the first time I have ever wanted to smack a chaplain. LOL. She said she didn't know that no one had told us anything about his status.

To everyone that helped out with Gregs situation, thank you very much. Couldn't ask for a better group of people. Everyone was more than willing to do whatever they could to help.

As Tod said, we still got some great riding in even though we missed most of the group rides. That stretch of I40 between Asheville and Knoxville was a blast.

As far as the actual incident, I was towards the back of the pack, a couple riders behind Greg. The pace was not an issue at all. After I realized I was grinding my sidestand on the sharp left handers, I decided I had better take it a little easier and dropped to the back. At that point in the ride, we were going fast enough to make it fun but it wasn't extremely challenging. The group was still all together and there was zero whiplash effect going on.

[jetmechmarty]

I didn't wish to suggest that there was blame coming my way. I simply wanted to point out to anyone not in attendance that our group was well behaved. Often times, we can get a little crazy on these rides, but that was not the case at this rally. To the best of my knowledge everyone was riding their own ride.

Greg was positioned toward the front with the smoothest riders. The report I got from a rider behind him was that he appeared to be riding well within his limits and was having no trouble negotiating the turns and leaving margin for error. We can only surmise that his concentration lapsed at an inappropriate time. The road we were on has some technical turns and few if any of them are marked by signs. On this road, there is little chance of leaving the pavement without getting hurt.

[jwhughes3]

I plan to try ang get one or both f my boys to join us next year. I don't plan to miss out and MAY even talk SWMBO into going.

John

[trbig]

We did the best we could. Accidents still happen. I'd like to point out that I thought we had the riders well sorted this year. The front had the smoothest riders and speeds were law abiding. AFAIK, the guys in the back weren't catching the 100 mph whip.

While this is no fun for Greg, I'm glad it wasn't worse. Motorcycling is dangerous and we do our best not to make it more so. I'm confident Greg will be with us again next year.

I don't think anyone is/was blaming you, Jeff, Gary, or anyone else pertaining to the rally. We usually ride a much less "Law abiding" pace around Arkansas, so no idea why this particular turn creeped up on him like it did. Probably fixated just like all 3 of my wrecks have been. Get an "Oh crap!" moment, and instead of looking where you want to go, you focus in on where you're headed and try to just stop before you get there.

It was a great rally. Harry and I didn't get much of the group ride, but we still got a good bit of riding in on Sunday, so the trip wasn't a waste. Thinking of bringing my oldest son next year.

[DGXSER]

While we seem to be focusing on the bad news, it sounds like you had an awesome rally. And for certain Marty, no one, including Greg himself has suggested there is anything anyone else could have done or should have done to prevent what happened. As the LEO told me when my daughter totaled my F150, "We call them accidents and not on purposes for a reason".

[jetmechmarty]

We did the best we could. Accidents still happen. I'd like to point out that I thought we had the riders well sorted this year. The front had the smoothest riders and speeds were law abiding. AFAIK, the guys in the back weren't catching the 100 mph whip.

While this is no fun for Greg, I'm glad it wasn't worse. Motorcycling is dangerous and we do our best not to make it more so. I'm confident Greg will be with us again next year.

[DGXSER]

I am also glad to hear Greg is doing well. Scott relayed that story to me, of course, since he knew the outcome it came out a bit more humorously.

I to recall when Trainzz had his accident. It was not to awful long before I had mine. I recall them telling me all that doctor speak for the stuff I messed up like compound fractures, pneumo-something, (which in my case was doc speak for a punctured lining of the lung, or blood in the lining of the lung, but no puncture), flail chest...and recalling it sounding a lot like the stuff they said was wrong with Trainzz. All I know is that I feel quite lucky in many ways. Hearing the issues for Greg with the spleen (after almost 50 years I still have no clue what a spleen does other than get injured pretty regularly on them doctor shows) and punctured lung, which I somehow escaped although I broke almost every rib on the right side twice, its good to hear he is healing well.

So good to know it was no worse than it was, and that all seem to be doing well.

[DAVINCI]

Yes, the Lee tragedy is still fresh in my mind. So sad.

[trbig]

Very sorry to hear of all the mishaps on this trip. Hope you all get 100% very soon. Thank god it wasn't worse.

Yeah, I don't know if all of you know that we went through a bad crash with Lee (Trainzz) on a rally here in Oklahoma where he passed away from his injuries. After Greg was flown to the trauma center, it took us a couple hours to get there. Harry (Bigfoot), Scott (3phase) and I were in the parking lot and I told them that if one of us wasn't a family member, they weren't going to tell us a thing. So Harry agreed to be Greg's brother-in-law. Wondering if a sister would have the same mustache as Greg?

Anyway, we walked in to the information counter at the front and asked where we could find Greg and that he'd been flown in a couple hours earlier. She looked in a couple places and said he wasn't in her system anywhere. Harry and I looked at each other... not good news. She said she'd make a couple phone calls, and then I heard her very solumnly say, "ohhh... ohhh... " Then gets off the phone and tells us that apparently he was in really bad shape when he arrived. She told us to go to the other end of the hospital and go talk to a security guard there, tell them who you are looking for, and tell them they came in "Code Trauma". Harry and I glanced at each other again... Everyone knows what "Code" stands for.

So we go to the other end of the hospital and talk to the security guard, lie to them about the brother-in-law thing, tell them Greg's name and that he came in Code Trauma. He looks on his computer and says, "Ummm.. If I could just get you guys to have a seat over there, I'll get someone to come talk to you. Now.. you said you're family, right?" More looks at each other. After a few minutes, the security guard brings a woman and says, "This is our Chaplain and she'll take you to see him" At this point, we both knew we were going to see Greg with a sheet draped over him. She never really said anything, and she took us to a room covered by a curtain. She slides it over to reveal Greg.. we see his feet first, and going up all covered with a sheet... then his ugly mug looking at us like, "Well WTF are you guys lookin' at!?" I can't tell you the relief we felt.. then it turned a bit to anger and told them how they'd scared the hell out of us.

So after the crash, Greg had tried to ride into town to go get checked out because he thought he'd broken a rib. I told him he'd sure ridden a long way just to crash, and he told me he loved me in his own special way. (F U!!) After @ 15 miles, he pulled over and knew something wasn't right and told us to call an ambulance. When he sat up, he felt like he was going to pass out. (Blood loss from a ruptured spleen) When we had him lay on his back, he couldn't breathe. (Collapsing lung from a pneumothorax.. probably rib puncturing lung)

Sounds like he's going to be around to irritate the heck out of us for a while longer though. Everyone helping with taking care of him, his bike, his belongings, and trying to figure out a way to get him and his bike home, I wanted to say thank you.

[DAVINCI]

Oh, NO!

Very sorry to hear of all the mishaps on this trip. Hope you all get 100% very soon. Thank god it wasn't worse.