Thrown To The Pavement

         The Portage Creek Bicycle Trail is a well used six mile stretch of macadam that starts not far from my mother's house...the neighborhood that I grew up in...2500 miles East of my present home. Not wanting to experience "cycling withdrawal" symptoms during my visit, I tuned up and borrowed my nephew's 26 inch wheel bike and launched down the trail.
         The morning was warm and the pavement was perfect, until it wasn't. I started to pass a side by side pair of female fast-walkers, plenty of room to get around them on the left edge of the trail, when "KERTHUNCK" ...my chest and my right forearm were making contact with the hard black surface, having traveled over the handlebars in an instant. Yes, I was wearing a helmet.
        I stood up fast and found the bicycle off in the weeds next to the trail. The ladies instantly reacted, "Sir, are you alright?" I sprung up off the pavement and assured them that they hadn't caused my spill, "It was this sinkhole that did it." This version of a mountain bike, a Gary Fisher 'Gitche Gumee' has a rigid front fork, no suspension.
        "I have a cell phone. Do you want me to call somebody?" She offered. when she inspected the hole she asked, "Are you going to call the city about this hole?" She dragged a branch out of the woods and draped over the deep depression. "Well, I am calling this in, the city needs to know about this.", she said loudly. They were quite upset, having witnessed a 65 year old large man slam to the pavement.
        I straightened the handlebars and remounted the Gitche Gumee....I had to finish the trail. While pedaling away from the scene I started to take inventory: two bloody knees, a scuffed right forearm, and a deep pain under my left boob. I wore gloves and even they lost some of their protective surface.    It wasn't until we were sitting on my mother's deck an hour later that my body started to talk to me. The right arm swelled to twice it's normal size....Ice please. My left ribs sent pain Morse Code signals to my brain...let's wrap that with a chest compression wrap and whatever you do, don't cough!