Do you ever wonder about timing? How every action or inaction on our part, moment by moment, alters the future in the slightest way? Maybe I shouldn’t say alters but rather directs the future. Sometimes a delay saves you from something bad, like an accident.
Just over a month ago, Rick and I had spent a wonderful reunion weekend camping with mom and dad at Bismarck Lake in Custer Park. After much laughter and fun we had to pack up on Sunday and head home. We were all getting ready to go but decided to sit down and take a quick break and have some lemonade before hitting the road. The 10 minute delay gave us a chance to discuss our planned travel route and allowed the breeze to cool us down prior to heading out. We had decided to take a much shorter route through the back roads of the Black Hills, very scenic, with much less traffic.
About half way home, we were headed down the last back road, Neck Yoke Road, before we would have to join the mainstream travelers on Highway 16/Mount Rushmore Road. We rounded a corner and immediately began slowing down. To the left of the road were about ten motorcyclists standing near their bikes, clearly looking on, but out of the way of the emergency personnel that were attending to someone in the field ahead… or should I say, tangled in the barbed-wire fence in the field. As we came to a stop in front of the police officer she approached us to say that well, “It’s going to be a little while until you can pass, the ambulance just got here.”
We got out of our RV, walked back to mom and dad and shared what was going on. Almost immediately, Rick and I suddenly realize we know one of the bikers standing on the side of the road, Rick used to work with him. We approach him and get the low down. Here’s what he said, “Dude, this just happened like 10 minutes ago. We met these two kids at the Loaf and Jug and they wanted to ride with us. Well, he was going too fast around that S curve and he was hugging the yellow. A pickup truck was coming the other direction and the kid was too close to the yellow line and over-corrected too much and lost control. The bike cart-wheeled and landed hung up on that field post. The girl is messed up.” So, I ask the obvious question, “Were they wearing helmets?” Yes. She even had a full face helmet on, but it busted into two pieces…..along with her jaw.
As the Medi-Vac helicopter landed in the field nearby, we silently said prayers for this young woman and the driver. Fortunately, he seemed in much better condition than she was. Since she was higher up on the back of the bike she took the brunt of the roll over/cartwheel.
Back to how I started. If we had not taken that rest before heading out of our campsite, we could have been the vehicle that they had to negotiate around, and I believe they wouldn't have been able to make it around the housing of our RV. I think if it would have been us, they would have been injured far worse than they were, if they even lived at all.
Both of the kids made it. The young woman was far worse than the young man. She is on the mend but still has a long, slow rehabilitation ahead of her. The morning of the accident I don't, for two seconds, think she thought she would have anything but a nice ride through the hills with her boyfriend.
For some the thrill is great, but the cost could be greater. Life will never be the same for either of them.
