I hope you’re sat comfortably, this could be a long one.

As many you of know on sat the 10th July both mine and Sean’s days very nearly came to an abrupt end.

Personally I’m getting used to this now but it doesn’t get any easier maybe that’s because this time it came out of blue and with one hell of a bang.

Friday 9th July had been a pretty dreadful day, I had a large number of punchers, decided I didn’t want to play anymore and through my dolly well and truly out the pram.

Sean and I had words on a couple of occasions about little things like nets in fields, nothing major just both tied, hot and hungry and we didn’t want to agree with each other even if we knew the other was right.

We had made it to Lafayette just as it got dark as planned, Steve had booked us in to a motel which we found, we had dinner but this was really hard to eat, I just didn’t want to eat anything or do anything but yet again i couldn’t sleep.

Anyway Sat was a new day, even though I hadn’t really slept and again really didn’t want to eat anything at breakfast I felt good, I was looking forward to a hard day.

We’d planned to be New Orleans for sat night (156 miles) so we could have a rest day where there was something to do, I could go to the Apple shop, Sean could get a massage and Steve could have a look at something other than the inside of the car then we could all do something together.

I checked my bike, put some air in the tires and re did the grip tape for the umpteenth time, we gave Steve a list and sent him to the local bike shop for spares and I was ready, ‘Sean had been ready for a few minutes which to be fair he was ready first most the time, but as we were leaving the car park he wasn’t wearing his helmet so I said In a typical sarky Golding tone “you not brining your lid then!!!” As if to say I thought you where ready???

We headed out of town at a good pace, this was the best pace I think we had been sitting at for a long time and we were riding on a different part of the road, I was leading (again) so I decided that we should stay as close to the carriage way as possible.

The reason we had been having so many punctures was because we had been riding on the hard shoulder and that’s where all the crap of the road ends up, bits of wire, glass, sharp stones, in fact everything you can imagine. So today we rode in between the fog line/white line and the rumble strip.

We rode at 23mph for just over an hour when we stopped for our first break, I needed some milk as I started to feel hungry and thought this would help. We pushed on for another hour and a bit still at a good pace around 24mph, the roads where flat and I think we had a slight breeze behind us but then I notice my tire had gone again so we took another stop fixed the tube and then as we rode up the road Sean’s went as well, you can imagine the language going through my head.
We got that fixed and went for it again after 3hr 30min (not including stop) of riding we had covered 65ish miles so we stopped for dinner, chicken and lots of fruit, eating still felt like a lot of hard work.

We still had another 91miles to do and time was getting on but I kept telling Sean there was plenty of time we were flying in regard to speed we just needed to shorten the stops, I felt good, strong and I was really happy on the bike we hadn’t been troubled with anymore punchers the weather was good with the odd shower that cooled us down, I couldn’t really complain.

Sean was riding really well to be honest he seemed to have overcome any probs he’d been having and was keeping up well, I didn’t have to the keep stopping and waiting for him. He doesn’t like riding at the front, he never has, so he sat behind me and drafted, we rode side by side every now and then for a little chat. I was enjoying it and he seemed to be as well.

As we got about 55 mile away from New Orleans we saw a big BP office block we had a little joke and decided to pop in to the service opposite.

There were some really nice Harleys parked up, little did we know that we would see these bikes again very soon, well at least the people riding them anyway.

I sat and thought about home, I thought of Simon (Stompy), a friend at home he loves his Harleys, even bought the lovely wife one (only so he could have two in the garage “i’ll get a slap for saying that”)

Sean and I spoke to a woman out side on the forecourt smoking, they all seem to do that a lot here mobiles and fags near petrol??? She was telling us how ill she was, that she might have cancer due to smoking and how ill her son was, all the things he could so and all due to her smoking while pregnant.

As we left here we where going well and the jokes where coming out we were in high spirits having a laugh together and enjoying the day again.

We placed ourselves in between the rubble strip and the flog line again

After a couple of miles I could see Sean was still with me, if you look down between your legs and back a bit you can see the wheel behind you, if it’s close enough!! and it was.

95% of the cars passing were letting us know they were there or moving to the second lane as it was still a dual carriage way.

I remember looking down at my Speedo 26mph good comfortable pace, not pushing to hard, a song came on my iphone it was the “The End Remix, Linken Park. I smiled even more than I have for a long time, this was it, this was what I’ve been working toward, this had been the last 8/9 months of my life, everything that I’ve been doing was about this and we were only about 1200miles from finishing. I could feel the emotion, what more could I ask for??

Then all of a sudden all within the space of split seconds I heard the weirdest/loudest crunching crashing banging kind of sound followed by the most painful scream yell and shout but with surprise pain and discomfort all at the same time but almost as if all the air had been sucked out of him at the same time.

Before I could even go to look round after telling me self I should I found myself sliding down the road on my legs arms then my back, my head was banging along the floor and I was trying to stop myself with my hands trying to stop myself by grabbing hold of the road.

I didn’t even have time to move my head the slightest amount when it felt like I had been hit with what you would imagine it would be like to be hit with a demolition ball or a truck of course.

Everything happened so quickly, I landed on the grass verge and with a quick survey of myself, almost knowing straight away what had happened I looked around and saw Sean about 3 meters away from me, he was still and curled up in a ball, I instantly tried to stand up so I could get to Sean but I couldn’t move!!

The first thing I thought was here we go again, I didn’t think my legs were going to work and again id be learning how to walk. I knew that I shouldn’t move but couldn’t help at least try, as I say this didn’t work so I stayed still and tried not to move.

By this time there were a lot of people running towards us shouting, I remember a pick up pulling over about 5 or 10 meters down the road at a kind of funny angle. I remember the voice of the first guy that got there”F##k this one’s dead, he’s done, he’s dead!!” I wanted to shout but couldn’t, I couldn’t actually do anything, it felt like I was on fire everything was burning, I had very little left of my shorts, my top was all ripped and there was a lot of blood.

A guy stood over me “this one’s awake, what’s your name buddy?” “James” “Who’s your buddy??” Sean, his names Sean” I asked if he was ok as a ladies voice said “he’s ok, he’s breathing but he’s not good, call 911 call 911, what’s his name, what’s his name” it turns out these were all the guys and gals of the Harleys we had seen earlier.

I still wanted to move but knew that I shouldn’t, a guy called Julio came over and talked to me, giving me water and patting my leg, he covered me with a blanket and kept putting water on my face to keep me awake, he told me all about himself although I cant remember what he said.

I could hear them talking to Sean, he was starting to cough and was trying to get up, I knew he was going to be ok, he was making to much noise not to be. He wouldn’t listen to what they were telling him and he wanted to do what he wanted to do, but that is not a surprise.

There were a lot of people around looking after us, dealing with the traffic, one lady was on the phone to 911 and talking to me asking questions about the both of us.

If any of those people are reading this, we both owe you guys so much, you saved us. Oh and nice bikes!!

All of a sudden the fire crew were there and we being looking after again, checking for breaks, they put a collar on my neck and I could hear Sean screaming as they moved him, they put us both on those nasty stiff plastic boards with our head strapped down, the trooper asked some questions and we where put in ambulances and off we went.

Id always been told that in the states they ask you for your visa card before they put you in an ambulance and that pretty much is the case.

The rider to the hospital was rough, they did the usual blood pressures, heart rate and tried to take some blood but I told him he wouldnt get any blood out on arms but he wanted to try, I tell every vampire (blood taker) the same thing. Bearing in mind i had blood test every day for 7 months and ever 10 to 12 weeks now.

I have to say he was a pretty nice guy, he did a good job of looking after me, and he also stayed with me till I had a nurse come to check me over once we got to ER.

As we got to the hospital and went through the waiting area I could hear Sean, I could tell he was in a bad way because of the noises he was making, they weren’t screams or shouts he didn’t have the strength or enough air for that.

All I hoped was the would fill up on drugs as quick as possible but they cant do that till they work what is broken or where about’s he is in pain.

The nurses came to see me so I could give them all of his information as he wasn’t making a lot of sense, he didn’t know where he was and or what had happened, I warned the nurse how stubborn he can be because I could here him saying he wanted to get up and walk about,

I could hear pretty much everything, he kept trying to take his neck braise off, there were all sorts of things going on different nurses and doctors coming and going, I couldn’t see anything be boy I could hear.

They planned to get him sorted asap, do everything they needed to, scans,
x-rays blood test to try and see what the deal was.

A had a really nice guy called Travis came through to see me, get some info, give me a check over and see what was going on with, id already given myself a mental check over, I was pretty sure nothing to major or at least nothing that couldn’t be fixed.

I’ve found that doctors along with the how amazing the human body there isn’t much they can’t put right.

Once they had done most what they needed they got Sean on some pain killers and he started to chill as much as he was going to and they moved me to a ward, later they told me they had moved him to ICU.

I’m sure there’s a lot more I could say and go into a lot more detail but i think you get the idea.

I think what was worse for me was not being able to help Sean and hearing him, i couldn’t take the pain away, I was helpless. I know i can get through pretty much anything and deep down i knew he would be ok but it doesn’t make it any easier.

Anyway I’m clocking off for now, thank you for all your support and thank you so much to the guys & gals that stopped all the hospital staff, fire crew and troopers you got us through to the point of starting our recovery. Thank you!!

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