Sunday's ride was marked by a very scary incident for those of you who may not have heard. Nine of us left Palouse on Sunday morning, a beautiful morning, no wind and still cool. We were joined by one more, Bill near Oaksdale.

All was well, until a group of us were told by a passing motorist that one of our group was hit by a car. I think most of use were horrified. If someone was hit, they were probably very seriously injured. It turns out no one was hit but Linda got a wheel caught in the tracks at a railroad crossing and went down hard.

She was knocked unconuscious. When the group of us returned to the scene of the accident, the ambulance was already there. It was obvious the Linda was badly hurt. I can't speak for anyone else but I know I was badly shaken seeing Linda put into an ambulance on the stretcher.

It was very interesting to see Corrie's reaction when we were told by the motorist that something had happened. He seemed to know right away that it was Linda that was hurt. He took control of the group. He had everyone come to a stop, turn around. We hauled major butt back to the scene. Our pace back to accident may have set a club record over a four mile distance.

Corrie insisted we go on with our bike ride, which we did. The rest of the ride was enjoyable. Headwinds this day were never too much of an issue. We had nice breaks in Tekoa and Farmingon. The grocery store in Tekoa was nice enough to offer us benches in the shade. Farmington has a very nice shady park where we took another break.

Bill, who is visiting us from Canada,(he has a dog getting treatment at the WSU clinic) set a monster pace from Tekoa to Farmington. We were often going 25 MPH. Mike and I stayed with him most of the way. Mike decided to back off after we were most of the way there. After we got there I complained a bit about the pace but Bill said it was all my fault! (My Fault? How?) He says when I took the lead once, that was the pace I was setting. Well maybe but only because it was a downhill!

Bill and I left the group in Farmington. He once again set a monster pace. I stayed with him on all but the worst hills but then would catch up on the downhill.

From Garfield back to Palouse, I do what I almost always do on long hot rides, I cramp. I was able to hold them off for the most part but could not put out much power on the hills. In Palouse, my calf decided to do a full bore cramp. Dave rode back to Pullman with me. On two of the hills I could tell my legs were trying to cramp so I got off and walked a few steps and then got back on again.

All in all it was enjoyable but please, please, no one besides Linda is allowed to win Broken Spoke!