Matt has a tradition of every few years of going on an epic motorcycle trip with a few friends. This trip was planned to start in El Paso, with a quick jaunt down to the Mexico border, then up the Continental Divide trail all the way back to Alaska.
The Alaskan contingent shipped their bikes down to a shop in El Paso and then flew down a before the trip start to get them put back together and buy any last minute items. Several friends were coming from both Dallas and California to join in the fun.
Unfortunately, this section of sand had other plans. Deep sand is apparently a bit tricky on motorcycles and it made the bike take a hard left, while Matt continued going straight...
It was immediately apparent that something was broken and Matt was not going to be finishing the ride. The other guys called for an ambulance, but were concerned that the ambulance would not be able to make it down the dirt road. Luckily a rancher was driving by and offered to take Matt to the road to meet the ambulance. Which is where we lose exact details of what happened from there.
The best we can tell, the rancher got Matt to the ambulance. The ambulance crew was worried that he had injured his head because he was very confused and mentioned having head pain. They called in a helicopter, closed down the highway for it to land, then Matt got a ride to the nearest trauma hospital back in El Paso. He got there and got all kinds of scans and tests.
Amazingly, I was still in Texas on my trip when I got the initial news and then the update that he had gotten a helicopter ride. So guess who got a side trip to El Paso to go check on their husband?
Luckily it was only a broken collarbone. The doctor said that in cases of trauma like this, the brain tends to check out a bit and that was the explanation for the fact that Matt doesn't remember hardly anything from the wreck to when he was at the hospital in El Paso. The ortho team there decided that a sling was all that this break needed.
So I got him the fanciest sling I could find at Walgreens and treated him to a few Texas delicacies before heading home. (In the midst of all this, my sister flew to Texas and took the boys home. Talk about a life saver!) I got him safely home and then found an ortho up here to make sure things were healing up ok.
Except the angle of the x-rays they took in El Paso didn't quite give the whole story. They took new ones and realized the break was much worse than it initially looked. So in addition to all of the "fun" of being helicoptered, he also got a fancy schmancy new nail put in his shoulder.
And his poor bike got left behind in Texas. Luckily, one of his friends took it back with him to Dallas and it will just have to hang out there Matt can go retrieve it.
Continental Divide trip, take 2 - coming summer of 2018?