8 years ago today Bo and I were at the campgrounds at Bonital Lakes, Meridian,MS chatting with Andrew Wheat and his mom about racing on Sundays. We had a nice long conversation and the next time I saw Andrew was when I was screaming at him to get help when I had crashed riding along behind him. The next time I saw his mom was when she came to the hospital in Meridian to check on me. To back things up a bit - Bo started one row behind me in only his 2nd ever time that he agreed to race with me. He teased me about when he caught me he was going to kick me over to get around. I teased back telling him he had to catch me first...LOL Well, he caught me - after I had been laid out for about 10 minutes (hahaha) - give or take a little - and hollered at me to get up cause we had to go. When I told him I couldnt he thought I was joking and told me to come on. It was a moment of painless pain that I will never forget. You know - that pain that hurts so bad you quit feeling it because you are about to pass out. Thankfully, Andrew heard my cry for help and guys came quickly - I remember Ben Womble stayed there with me and we prayed. Then John S. Manning showed up and told us we were only a few hundred yards from the interstate. Jeff Parke and several others in the crew toted me out of the woods on a flat board and transferred me to the hospital in Meridian where they did the xrays and such. Not only was my tibia plateau broken but it was crushed and a piece of bone at my knee cap had broken off. We opted to - and they let us - drive to Bham to where we already had a ortho surgeon who had fixed Kevins broken femur only 9 months earlier. When he came into the room - his face lit up - he remembered Bo---(imagine that) and he knew that the DeLoach name sounded very familiar. The photo is the hardware that I still have in my left leg today. If you ever see me have to run - youll know now why it is such a sight to see.....I posted this to encourage all of our injured and down and out riders right now, that healing does happen and bikes are ridden again. I still love it - just not as daring or fast as I once was. Kevin still has a rod in his femur and some pins in his hip - he hasnt slowed down much though...:)
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 22:33:07 +0000
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