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Stupid moves are not something you want to share but I figure my experince may help someone else so here goes.

I should mention I was traveling by myself.

I was on a cross country trip recently seeing many things such as Deal's gap, Arches, Mesa Verde, Brice Canyon, Zion etc. as a retirement gift to myself , and I got into an accident. I had seen many places, but while on my way to Glacier Park in MT I made a big mistake. I was following stop and go traffic on a state road that was a straight road where you could see for miles. Then traffic stopped I realized I was behind a truck painting the lines with 8 or 10 vehicles between me and the truck that was painting. I was on the crest of a hill looking down the road which looked clear. My side was a broken line and the oncoming line was solid. As I'm sitting there I realized I missed a turn. I decided to look down the road and make a u-turn. Then in the middle of the turn, I saw a car coming that wasn't more than 15 ft. from my bike and I was going to get hit broadside. I don't know why I didn't see him but I can only think of two possibilities. One was he was in a low spot in the road, as is common on the rural areas, or he turned out of a side road at the bottom of the road that the truck that was painting, let cross in front of him to come my direction. My rear highway bar and hard bag took most of the force. It amazing how fast you react but I got my right leg out before impact and I was standing was all was done. I didn't get hit real hard because the bike didn't move much afdter being hit.
My left ankle was sore and I don't know if I jammed it into the pavement or the bike hit it when it went down.

I've been driving cycles since the 70's and never made a judgement error like that. I still don't understand where he came from. Clean liscense no accidents since the 70's as well and easily over 200,000 miles on bikes.

On with the story.

Well the damage to the Toyota was a wiped out bumper and maybe a few other little things. Damage to the bike was new Roadhouse exhause bent, rear crash bar and hard bag wiped. Scratches on the left mirror, left front crash bar, clutch lever bent, left rear crash bar scratched, folded metal that right rear crash bar attaches to bent, handle for hard bag on left scratched.

Anyway the rear right crash bar did a great job anf everything major looks to be intact.

So now on with the aftermath. State trooper shows up along with the Fire Dept. The officer spends an hr or so with the other driver taking info and about 20 minutes with me. I was at fault because I made the u-turn and that was all the officer needed to know.While he was taking the info he gave me a 15 minute speech on how I could've gotton killed. What an insult to injury. We all know in an accident on motorcycle we could get killed. He wrote me a ticket for the u-turn noting I caused the accident.

When most everything was said and done my bike wouldn't start. The key wasn't turned off this whole time and it wasn't running. Just before this I had an oil change and had a phone number of the Kaw place and called him to ask about a cutoff. He told me to turn the key off and back on and that worked. It started. I originally called for a tow because I saw liquid on the ground so I thought there was more serious damage, but I believe that was gas because I has just filled up. I told the officer I'd drive it and he decided to follow me to make sure me and the bike was OK. The bike semed fine and he suggested I go to a repair shop to get it checked out. I told him I would buit when I was by myself I went through everything as best I could and came to the conclusion I'd try to make it to RI the way it was.

I drove another 75 miles or so and looked for a motel because it was staritng to get late as I don't like the idea of animals at dusk. I had already made a decision to go home because my ankle was sore and the right hard bag wouldn't close and a put a cord around it to keep it closed. When I got to the motel I took my boot off and my foot was black and blue on the top, bottom, sides and heel. It didn't feel too bad but if I needed to get it checked out I wanted to do that home in RI. and just get the bike home to take care of the necessary process to get it fixed. I rode 739 miles that next day, from MT to MN, over 600 miles the next two and 534 miles the last day. By the time I got home the foot was still swollen and now had a chance to get off of it. Now three days after getting home the swelling has gone down and much of the bruiising has gone away.

I contacted my company and brought the bike to my local repectable dealer and set up and appt. to have it gone through adn fixed. An adjuster is coming to the house in the next couple of days to look.

At this point I'm still disgusted and upset over my stupidity but I'm so confused where this car came from. I'm not giving up riding so you all know, but how still bothers me.

More to follow as things progress.

Oh yea. I never told my wife about my ankle until I got home because I didn't want her to worry.