I open my eyes. White... it hurts. I blink rapidly while my eyes readjust to the light my brain is jelly. It all started yesterday when I decided to go for a ride by myself. As far as I remember, that's how it started. My head is ringing so bad I can't think; I have no idea where I am. I try to stand up but my left knee is throbbing so I fall back to the ground and black, just black. I open my eyes again, I know that I'm not going to be able to walk back so my only option is to ride back. I sit up and look around. My bike is about 20 yard away and I can't tell where the trail is or where I am. All I know is that my skin is on fire and I can't walk. I can't remember where I came from.
I opened up my bag and luckily I packed some snacks and water so I took a swig of my water then stopped myself. I might be out here for a while so I should save it. I roll over to get on my stomach and start crawling to my bike. When I get to the bike it looks like a horned lizard spraying blood which I take as a good sign because that means it couldn't have been that long ago that I crashed. I try to stand up while using the bike to support me. My leg doesn't hurt as bad as before but I'm not going to be able to stand the bike up while my knee hurts this much. I look around this time I can see what looks like the road I was on before I decided to ride this dry river bed. I still can't remember exactly what made me crash. It could have been anything as far as I know it was an alien spaceship that flew in front of me and that's what I thought about as I dozed off under the dimming Nevada sky.
I open my eyes. I'm on my dirt bike riding down the road, wind in my hair and the roaring of the engine under me. I'm still on my way up to the cell towers at this point. There's a rabbit hopping alongside me, over in the bushes. That's odd. Rabbits usually run and hide when I ride by, but this one is just running with me. Then it darts down this wash so I follow it for quite a while until it disappears into the bushes. I just decide to keep going and see where the trail takes me. It splits into smaller trails when I'm about four miles down so I turn around and start heading back to the road and I get about half way back then “BOOM!”.
I jump awake, the wind is howling, I look to my right and there is that rabbit again, then nothing almost like it never existed. Was that a hallucination? How could that be? I haven't been out here very long and I have water. Anyways I get my tools out of my bag which consists of tape, zip ties, a small socket set and a multi tip screwdriver. I should be able to fix the coolant line that was spraying everywhere with the tape but I don't know if that's all that is broken. My knee looks bruised and swollen, but it doesnt look broken. I should be able to stand the bike up and hopefully it will start. I stand up and limp back over to the bike and pull it up. I sit on the seat and I hit the start button and it fires up.
“YES!” I shift it into gear. It clicks in, and I go. I get to the end of the wash and get back on the road. I'm so happy to be back on the bike and on my way home. It hurts a little to shift, but I no longer care, I'm going home and nothing can get in the way of that. The breeze is cool and sharp, but it feels so good on my face. This is the happiest moment of my life. Then the bike starts sputtering; it comes to a stop. I'm so close I probably have about a half mile to home. Why did it die now? I check the fuel. It looks low so I turn it to the reserve tank and try to start it up again and it fires up after a few cranks. Yikes! I thought it was going to quit on me this close to home. I ride into town and ride straight to the doctor’s office. I want to make sure nothing is wrong with my knee.