It was an huge personal growth experience.

I had my helmet, leather gloves and jacket and boots, so my injuries were of the meat-tenderizer type that comes from tumbling over asphalt until your crumbled body slows from 55mph to zero.

I walked away.

The tow truck dropped me at a McDonalds so I could call my (then) girlfriend from a pay phone, and it took my little 500cc Honda to a small, local repair ship in Warrnesburg NY.

My GF was 2 hrs and 16 min drive away and I asked her to come down and be with me.

She said, “Don’t you know anyone closer?”

I got the tire fixed, got back on, and finished the last two hours of my ride home the next day with my ego more injured than my aching joints.

And that was the end of that girlfriend.

I gave up the bike when I became a Dad (with a different woman, of course).

Thanks for asking.