The Mobius Trip

+1:d

Hi Kids, Hope all is well with LDF..lookin forward to report..

How about a Mobius 11.1 in the Fall? I've got some octane booster aging for ya.

Get on with it....the natives are restless!

HF

LDF , how about a word or two for your fans ? How are you doing , any lasting problems ? Hoping for a 100% recovery . Have your scribe get busy getting this report going . We are waiting .

Falling behind on reading this but glad to see everyone is ok.

Mark posted a ride report on his website at BigDogAdventures.com

Just finished reading......it's a real good-un!

Finally, I can sleep peacefully again....

HF

Second this. Very good RR on BigDogAdventures.com. Best to all. Nice to see how everyone helped out so much.

oh sure, everyone feeling sorry for Dave and Francine for having the trip cut short but what about me? 2 TENTS! GONE!

Great write up Mark.

Hope all is well back in NY guys.

Just caught the BigDog.com report, best wishes LDF, sorry for your get off and glad you had such good friends with you.

Love this community.

Hi Doc and LDF. Just wonder how you guys are doing and how she is recovering from her TBI... We haven't heard anything from you in a while.

+1

Your faithful minions await word from NYC

I know this post is long over due. Thank you everyone for your expressions of concern and well wishes. As this story plays out it will become clear that my actual writing of this post is part of my recovery and a sure sign for me that my return to work is right around the corner.

The importance of this post for me is to provide everyone with the recognition of how significant a concussion actually is. I can’t tell you how many folks I have come across that have shared with me the symptoms they suffered from as a result of everything from a MILD concussion to an actual traumatic brain injury. My point is, there sure seems to be a lot of variability of symptoms and their severity among patients as well as symptom understanding AND the EXTENSIVENESS on how they affect one’s function among healthcare professionals themselves. No disrespect meant here to anyone reading who is an actual healthcare professional; as many of you know both David and I are ourselves. I actually stated to my physiatrist who is at the newly opened Concussion Center at NYU that this is truly an area that requires some further medical education among many individuals who are staffing our ERs and Urgent Care Centers.

This has been a HUGE eye opener for me. :huh Here is my story:

Disclaimer: If you have no interest you can skip over this one and pick up when the next adventure begins.

So good to hear from you LDF. glad to hear you want to get back on the horse. I'm looking forward to hearing more. Get well soon.

As many of you have already witnessed through Big Dog Adventure’s tale (thank you Mark) we were having a great time the first four days of our holiday. We were experiencing beautiful scenery, the company of wonderful friends and great riding.

Julio, Roger, and Bud had split off from the group to head back home.





Scott, Mark, David and I continued on toward Death Valley.













I remember heading off on the Old Mojave Road.





At one point we all stopped to shed some gear because you could feel the temperature rising.

Scott and Mark took off riding; I followed after. I remember the bike feeling like a bucking bull so I thought “you better get your speed up so you can stabilize this bike out.” I remember twisting the throttle and……that is it. Absolutely NO memory of anything that followed until I was sitting at a slot machine in a casino where David had ‘placed’ me while he was arranging for a hotel room.

Here are the photos of the scene that has been described to me by David, Mark, and Scott.........













The only story I can tell is the one that David has provided; the filling in of details from when he came upon me face down in the sand, removed my helmet, opened my airway and called 911 on the spot tracker we carry. I was out cold for about five minutes and when I first came to I could nod yes or no to questions, but was aphasic (couldn’t speak) and had a right hemiplegia (couldn’t move my right side at all) both of which recovered quickly within a minute or so, thank God. The photos some might find upsetting, but for me it’s a reminder of how truly blessed I am to have an amazing partner, wonderful friends, and be part of a motorcycle community made up of individuals willing to lend a hand at the drop of a hat when they hear about a rider (or riders) in need.







This is a fellow ADVRIDER: squirrelly who drove from Las Vegas on his day off to help Mark and Scott load our bikes up on his truck and bring them to David in Las Vegas. Scott and Mark drove their own bikes to Las Vegas on Christmas tree pass that squirrelly recommended.

Oh, man. So glad to hear from you! Welcome back, Francine, and thank you for putting in the time and effort to let your Mobius Trip fans know you and David are doing well.

When we arrived at the hotel, one of my first memories was turning to David and saying “I can’t believe they discharged me without crutches or a cane” to which he replied: “they offered them to you Francine but you adamantly refused. You told them you were FINE to walk. This begins the “tone” of my recovery. I was in and out of indifference and outrage of the things that annoyed me and the points I SURELY needed to make. None of which are part of my baseline personality.

But let’s track back a bit. As Mark alluded to and David has specifically told me, I was confused for about 24 hours and had severely impaired short-term memory for about 36 hours.



David is actually recording my repetitive questions to everyone. The answers I obviously failed to remember




I truly thought that we, I, was going to get back on the bike and continue on to Death Valley. David had to appease me by saying sure Francine while he arranged for a car rental and storage unit for both of our bikes (with the help of Mark and Scott who stayed with us in Las Vegas for two days before continuing their trip; thanks guys).

David and I set out car camping heading to Flagstaff AZ as a final destination where our brother and sister-in-law live with their kids. I don’t remember a whole lot of the trip aside from the beautiful, quiet, and tranquil campgrounds we stayed in along the way.








Most of my time was spent sleeping in the tent with David occasionally awaking me to assess my orientation.


I know one thing for sure. I could not tolerate extraneous noise from ANYONE no matter how soft spoken they were. The moment someone moved into the campground next to us, a simple look towards David is all it took before we were packing up the tent and gear and moving to another isolated campsite.