When the sun’s out, it get’s hot.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to get out and ride with a group of people but I finally had the chance on Sunday. Woke up just after 6 am ready to ride I guess. Normally I try to sleep till 8 or 9 on the weekend. Took a shower, made breakfast, and surfed the web for a while till it was time to head to my sisters church (Lake House Church), about a 30 min ride from my place. The service was a good one and after church we were going to head out to Fort Worth to get something to eat. There were 9 people going, seven bikes and 1 car. Mark who was in a bike accident a couple of months ago still hadn’t been released from the dr (and his wife) to ride so he was in the car, and thank God he was cause it he saved the day later.
We first headed to Kincaid’s Hamburgers over in the Ft Worth arts district but apparently they are closed on Sundays so we went down the street to Uncle Julios to eat some Mexican food. We spent about an hour there and then headed off towards Weatherford. Here’s the only picture I took of the day. For some reason I always forget my iPhone has a camera in it…

So we head off down I-30 which later turned into I-20 towards Weatherford and take the Tin Top Road exit. It was a decent road, one lane each direction, but wasn’t really windy or hilly enough. We were heading towards a place called Mary’s Brazos Cafe that is supposed to be a biker friendly place but when we finally got to it, there were only a few cars in the parking lot and we didn’t even bother going in, just looked at the maps to see where to go next. From there we took the wrong road right out off the parking lot and went down Old Tin Top Road where we should have gone straight on New Tin Top Road. The old road ended up turning into a gravel road which is always fun to ride on… But then it ended up dropping us out onto New Tin Top and we were once again on our way.
I’m not sure were we went from there but some how we ended up at Lake Granbury but we didn’t stop at all except to stretch our legs and get some gas. At some point we ended up on the Paluxy Hwy and were going to go to the Dinosaur State Park area (see my past post on that place here) but decided it was getting hot and late and should start heading back towards the DFW area. So on to 67 East we road. Brandon an old neighbor I grew up with who I recently got back in touch with on Facebook was riding with us and he split off at 35W and headed north towards his home in Rhome, the rest of us continued on till 287 in Midlothian. That’s when the guys on the bigger bikes took off down the road and headed home. Me on my little 600cc bike got left in the dust but luckily Randy slowed down and waited for me to catch up.
Right about then is where things started going down hill. We’re heading straight towards the sun. It’s between 5 and 6 pm which is the hottest part of the day and the heat index was near 100. I’ve had heat exhaustion before and have passed out from getting to hot and that’s when I started getting that somewhat familiar feeling again. My mouth dried out first, then it was getting hard to concentrate and stay focused on riding. I started looking ahead for a gas station or something where I could pull over and get something to drink and rest and that’s when I started getting tunnel vision and everything turned to black and white, was no longer seeing anything in color. Not only did my vision start going but my hearing was on it’s way out too, getting muffled like I was wearing ear plugs, I could no long hear the engine of the bike. I knew then that I needed to get off the road and off the bike, quickly. I was on a small bridge at the time that covered a fairly deep ravine and knew that I needed to stay away from the edge so that I wouldn’t tumble down into the ditch if I was to lose control of the bike so I started slowing down in the middle of the highway. I have no idea if there was anybody behind me, I was afraid to take my eyes off the spot I had focused on for where I wanted to be. Just past the bridge was a side road that I was able to pull off onto. I don’t remember coming to a stop or even getting off the bike but somehow I got it stopped with the kickstand down and engine off. I do remember thinking I need to get out off the sun so I made it to the front of the bike and sat down by the front wheel in what was the only shade I could find, which there wasn’t really any. I also somehow got my helmet, goggles and gloves off, I guess to try and cool off. While this is all happening, my world is still in black and white and I can’t hear a thing. I guess about this time Randy notices I’m not behind him any more and turns around to see me in the distance and that I’ve pulled over and am beside the parked bike. He thinks there’s something wrong with the bike and I’m working on it and turns around to head back my direction. He said it took him a few min’s to get to me and that when he finally got there I was staring lifelessly into space, eyes open but passed out. He couldn’t get any reaction from me but could see that I was still breathing. He said I had lost all the color out of my face and that my blue eyes had faded to a real light blue and my pupils were the only thing with any color. He grabbed his phone and called 911 and about that time I started to gain consciousness. I was having trouble breathing my vision still in black and white but my hearing was starting to return. I heard Randy asking how I was, what had happened and if I was ok, and that he was also talking to a 911 dispatcher. About this time Mark, who was in the car, pulls up. Because of traffic he had got stuck at a few traffic lights and was just now getting to us. I don’t really remember a whole lot of what was going on, but I remember a guy on a motorcycle pulling over and asking if everything is ok. Mark or Randy tell him that I got over heated and ask if he happens to have any water or anything to drink on him. He just happens to have a large styrofoam cup of ice with a little bit of Dr. Pepper in it. How he had it on his bike I don’t know, but as soon as he handed it to Mark, the guy took off. Wish I could have gotten his name and said thanks cause that ice really helped cool me down, poured some of it down the front and back of my shirt and crunched on the rest of it to stay cool.
Randy was off the phone now and the ambulance was on its way. By now I had gained a little bit of my strength and was able to walk to the car to sit in the AC. Man, having Mark there with the car was the greatest thing. I had never enjoyed cool air so much in my life. We sat in the car for maybe 10 min’s before somebody from the Mansfield Fire Department showed up. Wasn’t a firetruck but a guy in a Suburban. He checked me out some, just asking how I was, what had happened, what kind of medication I was on, what the date was, simple questions to make sure I was at least coherent. Not long after he showed up a couple of ambulances showed up. One from the city of Mansfield and one from Grand Prairie. Since this happened pretty much on the city limits line I guess it was a first come first serve to see who could get to me first. The great city of Mansfield got to me first so I went to their ambulance to get checked out. By then I had recovered enough to walk unassisted and crawled into the back of the ambulance. Inside they hooked one arm up to the blood pressure machine and the other to an oxygen monitor. Both of them were spot on perfect. They said it was textbook perfect, couldn’t even tell that anything had happened to me. They kept me hooked up to the machines while I answered some questions about what had happened, what I had to eat and drink today, where I lived, what kind of medication I was on… the basic stuff they need to ask. One of my blood pressure meds says to stay out of the sun when taking the medication. Well I had done the exact opposite of that and had been in the sun pretty much all day! At this point I was feeling perfectly normal if not better than normal. I was breathing fine, had plenty of energy and was ready to get out of that ambulance. I had to sign some “paper” saying that I was refusing further treatment and that I understood I was being released under my own care and was now free to go.
I hopped out and thanked the EMT guys for stopping and got back into Marks car to keep cool. About that time my parents pull up. Randy knew that if he didn’t call them that my mom would have killed him the next time she saw him. She had calmed down some from when she first heard about me laying on the side of the road. From what everybody was saying, she was really freaking out, which I can understand, bless her heart. I kinda looked like I was dead when Randy had first pulled up next to me. Oh and the first thing she said to me was “Your selling that bike!”
Randy was calling around to find somebody to come drive my bike back and got in touch with the wife of a guy that had been in our group earlier. She kinda misunderstood what was being said and thought we were asking her to come pick her husband up (who hadn’t made it home yet). So she’s shows up and we’re all wondering where her husband is…. Randy explains what happened and she apologizes. It’s cool, it was loud standing next to the highway and she probably couldn’t hear all that he was saying, plus with her husband not having made it home yet, thought that we were needing her to come pick him up. Makes sense I guess…
I’m still feeling 110% with this new wave of energy I have and tell everybody that I can drive the bike on back to Randy’s house, which was only about 15 min’s away. So I put my gear back on and fire the bike up. It’s after 7 now and it’s starting to get a little cooler, like the low 90′s so the ride wasn’t to bad. I never had any more problems and felt pretty good the reset of the night. We get back to the house and talk about what happened, what all I remembered and don’t remember and that’s when I realize that when I had passed out, I remember dreaming. But for the life of me I can’t remember what it was I was dreaming about. I can’t remember if it was about somebody, or something or what. I just remember it being real peaceful, calm and very bright, almost like I was flying. Wish I could remember what it was…
On that note, I would just like to say thanks to everybody that helped. The Mansfield Fire and EMT departments, Randy for calling 911 and staying there with me and all the other phone calls for help, Mark for the car to stay cool in (that AC was a God Send), my parents for coming out to check on me and giving me a ride home, and the Mystery Biker who had the ice. I might not be here if it hadn’t been for you guys! God Bless you!