The day started off odd as Josh and I left Jennings, Louisiana today at nearly 9:00am, 2 hours late. Due to my scheduled Fox News interview that was nixed because the Israeli Prime Minister took up a lot of  time, and then they had to show off the “Best Animal Videos of 2008″.  So we took off from the Waffle House and headed off into the grey horizon.

Within 20 minutes the light rain had turned to a fairly substantial downpour, but I pushed on through to the next truck stop I could find.  Josh, who has been riding with me since Austin, was a ways back so he ended up under an overpass waiting for the rain to clear up, which it didnt.

After getting coffee I pushed forward another 10 miles through the nasty weather, now adjusting its winds against me as well as continuing to unleash the heavens in a downpour.  Next, what didn’t seem lucky at the time, my rear tire got a flat. Again, I thought, This has to be number 20 by now! Pulling into the station I fixed the flat then sat inside waiting for the weather to clear up, which it didn’t.  Two hours later I convinced two truckers named Ed and Jan to give me a ride down the road about 20 miles to the next big truck stop.

Simply put (I’ll spare the hitching stories for another time), after two more rides across spans that are impossible to cross on the I-10 I finally got to Baton Rouge and reunited with Josh, who had lucked out in his hitching expedition and was waiting for me at the Chimes Bar next to Louisiana State University.  After finishing the local brews and gumbo, we headed out to our host’s family five miles away.

Sure, the visibility was low, and the rain on the pavement made all the lights seem to blur together.  I was following right behind Josh, he had a bigger headlight and my tail-lights we’re better.  But the next thing we knew we were smashing into the side of a Jeep wrangler.  The driver, an LSU student, hadn’t seen us when he attempted to make a left turn out of a residential street.

Even though Josh hit first, he bounced off the pavement and got up without hardly a scratch.  I, on the other hand, was struck by the jeep’s front fender on my inner thigh, causing standing and walking up to be uncomfortable.

The young man who had hit us was shocked and very apologetic.  He offered to give us a ride to our hosts house, only a few blocks away from the scene of the incident.  Today he helped us out by taking us to the Bike Shop for repairs to the damaged bikes.  I went to a physical therapist who examined my leg and said I have a hematoma, but that it shouldnt deter me from riding. (Huge thanks to Gloria from GO P.T. in Baton Rouge for the treatment as well as encouragement.) 

So it looks as though this is just another bump in the road.  As for the repairs, Josh lost his GPS receiver in the chaos, and I may be having some further costs for therapy coming up, so if you’ve been thinking about contributing, now would be a much appreciated time.

While I’m currently limping around, I’m still happy that neither of us were seriously injured. Hopefully I won’t be coming into contact with another car ever again!