Yesterday my jaw began to hurt. On the right side near the ear it was sore and has persistently gotten worse. I talked to my mom and she recommended I do some stretches and said it may just be stress related or something because I'm riding all day in a bike seat (apparently if your pelvis alignment is off then it can affect your jaw? The pelvis is connected to the...jaw bone?). So I bought some Tylenol from a gas station and that helped out. I honestly was wondering why this would happen as it was making riding a lot more difficult and not helping my attitude at all. I actually asked myself once why I had gone on this trip again...then I saw the Smoky Mountains poke up in the distance and started to laugh and told myself, “Oh yeah.”
Wasn't sure if the Smoky Mountains, would be so eventful. I figured I'd be riding up and down hills, gradually increasing in elevation, eventually to discover, “Oh...I'm on the top of a mountain.” at some kind of a lookout point. I've been proved wrong. I turned down a street and was caught by surprise when there were dim blue layers of mountain jaggedly working along the horizon.
I rode toward the mountains, through the winding, rising and falling road and was astounded. The Broad River flowed on the left, deep down away from the road, and on the right the land rose sharply up covered in trees.
Passed through a small area with some buildings, some tourist shops, a library, etc., seeing a few pedestrians. About a quarter mile past this I looked over to the river flowing beside and, distracted, veered off the small drop at the edge of the asphalt into the grass, instinctively turned hard left to try to get back onto the road, my front wheel only grinding against the edge, my bike tipped over to the left onto the asphalt, and bracing myself with my hands as well as I could I slammed into the ground with my chin smashing hard against the road. As quickly as I could I gathered up my handlebar bag which fell off, pulled my bike into the grass and laid it against the railing. I looked over my hands and knees, put my hand up to my chin and looked into it and blood was spreading into the cracks of my palm. Took off my handkerchief and held it against my chin holding the flap of skin closed and, putting what pressure I could endure with my jaw being the way it was, tried to stop the bleeding. I sat on a wooden post in the railing next to the road and watched the river flow by, listened to the cars pass by behind me for maybe five minutes and with the blood not stopping, decided I'd need a mirror. So I headed back toward the buildings I'd seen earlier.
When I got there I found that the building closest to the road was an EMT station with ambulances and all. The people on duty were grouped outside having a barbeque or something and I set my bike down and asked if I could use the bathroom. They didn't notice anything, so I decided it couldn't be that bad. I went in and saw that the cut on my chin was a gash, wide open and when I pushed the skin back where it should have been it pulled itself back down when I let go. I sighed and went back out, walked awkwardly up to the group not sure of what to say.
“Hey...I hate to bother you guys, but uh, well I had kind of had a bike wreck and was wondering if maybe you have a first aid kit or something?” I showed them the cut.
“Oh that's too deep. You'll need stitches for that. Yeah it's fileting.”
"Well, we can drive you in to the hospital if you'd like," one guy offered.
“Uh, do I have to?”
“Ha ha, well you don't have to do anything. That's up to you.”
“It's just that I don't have insurance or anything.”
One man, looked at me sympathetically, and piped up, “I'll tell you what: if you promise not to sue me, I'll sew it up for you.”
I was taken into their lounge and he pulled up a chair and gave some orders. Had a stretcher brought in for me to lay down on, and everyone grouped around. He brought in a large backpack with layers of tools inside and pulled out tweezers, scissors, a suture kit, pads. He laid a towel down on my neck while one person held a flashlight over me so he could see what he was doing while he worked. I closed my eyes, laid back and waited, trying not to move. He numbed my chin and then got to it. After about ten minutes he'd washed it, strung it up, and tied and cut the last thread and was giving me instructions on how to care for my cut and six stitches.
“Well, does anybody mind if our buddy here has some lasagna with us?”
His name was Mike.
Written 9/27:
Now I'm in a library in Mills River, NC a few miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway, waiting out under incessant rain. I've been hiding under whatever shelters I can find trying to keep dry as much as I can. I found an LDS church nearby and they don't seem to mind if I camp underneath their little overhang so I'll be spending the night there again tonight hopefully and if possible head out tomorrow.
Yesterday I did decide to give it a try though, climbing higher and higher into the mountains. Along the way there were outlooks set up where you can apparently view the land around, but the view was blocked completely because I was literally inside a cloud. Before attempting the road, even from down in the foothills I could tell that the mountains were shrouded in layers of mist, but had decided to try out boredom, only to find that it was indeed cold, foggy, and that the rain only became heavier and thicker as the elevation rose. I knew if I were to camp the night up here I'd be miserable since my tent and sleeping bag were already wet from the night before, so I headed back down and dried my stuff out at the church, spending hours watching the water drops shatter in the puddles. So today is a break day for reading and writing, and whatever else I can find to bide time until the sun returns and brings its happy heat and dryness.
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