Lucky Guy

This morning's photography meetings were exciting, with great ideas from Scott Crosby and Kay Eskridge. Practical tips for seniors, and tots to teens, while surprising your clients with images they never dreamed of. Great! Peggy's pumped back up again!

While on my way back to my room I crossed paths with Justin. His face was friendly so I said "Hi - nice T-shirt as we passed on the small bridge over the man-made canal. He smiled back and said, "Yeah, I had a bicycle accident with a Ford F-150." I heeled around, stopped in my tracks, and began to talk to him as my memory went back to my bicycle accident in Slovenia in 2005.

He'd been riding on a rural stretch of road on an new composite fiber bicycle (2.5 rides old!) on a straight, rural stretch in Kansas. While he doesn't recall the accident, a 24 yr old woman driving behind the F-150 and the reluctant, first responder, said he was pushed up and over the hood and top of the truck by a driver that fell asleep at the wheel. He first landed in the truck's bed and then on the road. She thought he was dead when she came to his aid, but he survived his concussion and rib injuries. Wow! Justin said his helmet did everything it was supposed to. "Obviously," I thought as I listened to him recall the event.

By statistics, he shouldn't be here. Nor perhaps I, as I went over the handlebars of a rented bike when the front fender broke off and lodged in the brake mechanism. Thank God for 'tuck and roll." So Justin and I hung out for a while talking about our love of cycling after our bodies started to rebel from 5-7 days/week of running. While we both knew what could have happened, it didn't matter now. It was a 10 minute bonding experience for me. It left me thankful for the tuck & roll and that Justin landed just right on that stretch of road in rural Kansas.

I ask if I could make this image and he consented. It's a reminder to me that I too am lucky, even if I don't have a T-shirt to prove it!