How not to visit Hawaii
Veen's bicycle injury from his daily commute reminded me of Ben's fall during our trip to Hawaii last summer. This Hawaii vacation was our first real vacation in about four years and because of that, there was a lot of high expectations going in.
A little background about the trip: This was not our first choice. We had booked a bicycle trip in Thailand for December of the previous year but when I dislocated my knee (don't ask), we had to cancel. Ben was certain that the Hawaii trip would get can
celed too due to me getting injured again. When I didn't get hurt or sick, we breathed a sigh of relief.
Too bad that only a couple days into our bicycle/hiking/kayaking/swimming trip, Ben fell off his bike during one of the rides. He was riding behind me on a pretty straight course, but we were starting to go downhill. His tire blew and he fell forward right onto his chin. It took a few seconds for me to realize he wasn't still behind me, but when I realized it, I dropped my bike and ran towards him.
There doesn't seem to be many things more difficult that running on a slight uphill right after being on a bike for 45 minutes. I felt like I was in a dream since I was running, but not making any progress.I never thought I'd reach him but when I did, I sort of lost it since his chin was so badly cut. I took off my bike jersey (I was wearing a sports bra) and gave it to him to stop the bleeding. About ten minutes later, other people from our bike group started to pass us and they each had this same reaction: "hey, what happened? You guys okay? OH MY MOTHER OF GOD! YOUR CHIN!!!" Long story short, Ben was taken to the hospital where he got 16 stitches in his chin and his arms and legs were bandaged up because of the road burn.
The worst part of this all -- you know, other than the stitches -- was that he couldn't go into the water during the rest of the trip. So no swimming in Hawaii for most of the trip.
Comments
Wow. That's a really bad cut. I remember when that happened. That must have really sucked for several reasons: one, the obvious pain; but two, the fact that, as you said, you couldn't go into the water, which is kind of the reason to go to Hawaii. At least his chin is better now.
I like that look on Ben's face in the first picture. I've seen it (and probably made it myself) all too many times. It's the "I'm going to remain calm, because if I start freaking out, then everyone around me's going to freak out, and that's just going to freak me out more... so I'll remain calm, but inside I'm FREAKING OUT."