When a bike and a car meet head on, the car tends to win.

That seems obvious, but in all honesty, very few people can understand that as well as I do right now.

Sunday was amazing, wonderful weather, warm, sunny, but with a breeze to cut down on the heat. So I thought I could go for a bike ride.

There's a route I've taken almost every day the past three summers, probably well over 100 times. It's a 4 mile ride through my neighborhood, which, while lacking sidewalks, is an equestrian neighborhood and as such has fairly wide roads.

Never before has there been a major incident while I was biking.

So, Sunday, I get my helmet on, check the pressure in my bike tires, and get rolling. About a mile out there's a long hill (up on the way out) and at the top I take a right hand turn. After the right turn at a T intersection, the road takes a nice, gentle turn to the left.

Starting out on this turn, all hell broke loose. Halfway around the turn, some maniac in a little white car came shooting out of nowhere, going WAY too fast, as in 40-50 mph in the neighborhood. Losing control of the car around the turn, they entered my lane, head on.

Trying to avoid the car, I swerved to the right, but there is a lip between the road surface and the shoulder. My bike wheel caught that lip, shot out from under me, and I landed in the road. The car was gone, no sign of it.

Dazed, I biked back home, spent the rest of Sunday pouring Betadine on my right knee (which, at this point, is missing most of the skin on the left half), left palm (missing skin an area the size of a quarter in the fat of my thumb), and right arm (this isn't so bad, just a bunch of scrapes).

Monday, Quantico Hospital visit. Nurse / Wound Care Technician lady gets the go ahead from a doctor to "wash out" my knee. This involved not a saline wash and rinse, not an alcohol wash and rinse, not a soap wash and rinse, but all three.

Twenty minutes later, I hobbled out much slower than I was able to hobble in.

Moral of this story: If you see a car coming at you while riding a bike, jump off the bike before the bike jumps out from under you.

PS: If you are going to be prescribed a narcotic for pain, make sure it isn't Vicodine. 500mg of the junk does nothing. For some reason 1000mg of Motrin hasn't been doing much either though.