So today unfortunately, was not like the other days. I woke up earlier than normal because some other people in the church hostel I stayed at were getting up very early to take advantage of the morning ride. I didn’t mind, I like an early start, and as a bonus there was already a pot of brewed coffee on the go when I got up.

I was only around 14 miles from the Kansas state line so I started pedaling and around an hour later crossed into Kansas. I expected to change time zones immediately but apparently the 4 counties that border Colorado are on Mountain Time also, so I had to wait for the next county to put forward my clocks.

On the way to the next county I caught up with a cyclist I’d been crossing paths with for the past couple of weeks, he’d got back ahead of me after my side trip to Boulder, so we rode together for a little while and chatted as we rode. We hadn’t actually ridden together previously, we just talked off the bikes. As we were coming up to Scott City, around 15 miles away, he was riding up ahead of me and I had my head down turning the wheels. I didn’t notice him stop to wait for me, and bam, I caught up with his rear wheel and over the handlebars I went. Ouch.

I won’t go into graphic detail, but a passing driver was kind enough to stop and offer to drive me to the nearest hospital in Scott City ahead. The bikes were loaded up in the back of the pickup and we were driven to the Emergency Room. Because my head hit the pavement they ordered a CT scan, and also took scans of my face to check for broken bones. They put in a drip and gave me some pain meds, some saline, and cleaned up my face. I had some cuts on my face that would need stitches, but while the CT scan of my head was clear, I had hit my tooth on the pavement and it caused a minor fracture. They wanted to send me to a hospital with a trauma unit that was familiar with this type of injury, the nearest one was two hours away in Hays.

The social worker explained to me that Kansas was large and remote, and I was in the middle of nowhere. To transport me to Hays I needed to wait for the local volunteer run ambulance. After a couple of hours it seemed like they would not be able to take me that day, and my options were to go by air, which sounded very expensive and was medically unnecessary, or an ambulance crew 3 hours away had agreed to come by, which would be 5 hours total once we got to Hays. Fortunately the local ambulance agreed to work into the evening and drive me over, and unlike the other ambulance the local ambulance also agreed to let me load my bike into the back of the ambulance. I was so grateful to the ambulance crew.

I had the accident around 12:30 Central Time, we had changed timezones in the middle of all of this, and it was after 7 by the time I arrived to Hays. The oral surgeon was the oncall trauma surgeon, and he was aware I was coming as he consulted when deciding to transfer me. He came in a little later and calmly explained to me that my injuries were low complexity and relatively minor, despite what it may feel, and he would be able to patch me up under local anaesthetic. Overall he was very reassuring and made me feel very comfortable. By 10 pm I had my tooth straightened out and temporarily wired to its neighbours for support, and 28 stitches total across my nose, lips, and chin where I had scrapped the pavement. I got my medications and the ER nurse organized a ride with the hospital security guard who was kind enough to drive me and my bike to a hotel in town.

At the end of a long day I was feeling sorry for myself but glad to be patched up, and grateful for all the care that I had received in Kansas. It wasn’t the day I expected when I woke up.