With 3,000+ miles to cover, all the way across America, we knew that Bikemovement would inevitably catch some people’s attention. What we didn’t count on was getting so popular with the local law enforcement. But I’ll be careful not to exaggerate things, especially since it’s in our interest not to: so far we’ve met only three sherriffs, an average of .0025 per mile. Hardly even worth mentioning, if it weren’t such a fun statistic.

We encountered our first cop in Oregon, who reprimanded half of our group for riding three wide (which we’ve rarely done since, especially on the busy roads). On our way to the tiny town of Boulder, Wyoming, four more of us provoked sirens and the whole bit, just for riding two wide outside the white line. “That’s what those rumble strips are for!” he claimed, “To keep you farther away from the shoulder!” We thanked him for his concern, but were back to two wide before we were probably even out of the policeman’s precinct. I mean, rumble strips are not meant for bikers’ safety, and how else are we supposed to have all these conversations, if not on our bikes for 80 miles each day??

Anyway, my “run-in” with the law today stimulated a little more excitement than the group’s previous two: this one even earning me (Kendra) the first “warning” on my driving record. Ironically, I wasn’t even driving; I was biking. And the citation was issued by Fremont County’s official “Livestock Investigator,” though I guess he also goes by Sherriff whenever unusual situations like mine come up.

A situation which was quite outside my realm of experience, also. Never before have I hit a car on the road, or been hit by one, or….well I guess you could say we hit each other. When all is said and done, however, my bruises will cost a lot less than his—my handlebars striped up the side of his car—which must mean that I won. (Unless, of course, you consider whose insurance is paying for what…)

Though, naturally, everyone was more worried about me than the car. Those who saw it happen said their hearts were in their throats, helpless as they were to prevent it. The driver’s wife jumped out of the car, yelled that she was an EMT, and immediately set to work with the neosporin and band-aids. All of my teammates also rushed to my aid, gave me water, asked how many fingers they were holding up. I tried convincing them that I was ok, but I don’t think they fully believed me until I got on the cell phone myself and cancelled the ambulance. But I honestly knew I didn’t need it; I had landed on all the right places and distributed the scrapes pretty evenly along my left side, so that none of the cuts were serious. People even tell me that my fall should be rated a near-perfect 9.5; the only reason for the -.5 being my broken sunglasses, which, unfortunately, didn’t quite make it. (My bike is fine, too.)

And that wasn’t the end of my good fortune: the accident itself had occurred mere feet from a rest area, where our support vehicles were already stopped for lunch, and had all the necessary first-aid materials with them. Being an EMT, the driver’s wife also knew how to handle local medical and police services first-hand, taking charge of the situation and making all the necessary phone calls. I know we all were glad that she was there.

As the driver looked on to make sure I was ok, he joked that I must be one tough girl: I’d put quite the scratch into his vehicle just with my little body and bike. But he didn’t seem interested in punishing me more for the accident, mentioning that his brother-in-law, an autobody mechanic, would probably fix the car. Then he spoke with the sherriff, whom he apparently knew, and talked him into giving me just a warning. After that, he gave me his card, which read:

Mick Wolfe
Mayor
City of Lander

No way! I just had a literal run-in with the mayor! How bizarre… And did I mention that Mr. Wolfe and his wife also happen to have a daughter named Kendra?

Posted by Kendra Nissley

This entry was posted on Friday, July 28th, 2006 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Trip06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.