Eight Lives Remaining

Pff my handlebars are facing backwards
(noob) after taking a spill

Fell off the bicycle on a bridge at the Louisiana - Mississippi border. My only way into Vicksburg on I-20 was over a bridge with a slender shoulder. At an area of the bridge where two road sections connect, a gap caught my wheel and launched me forward off onto the road.

There were plenty of sewer drain grate covers on the bridge, and I knew from my the last accident not to travel over them. I still don't understand why they install the gaps lengthwise in the direction of traffic. If they just install those bars in a perpendicular direction, they aren't dangerous to roll across. Every ten feet would be a grate to avoid.

But there was a new hazard. The teeth connecting the bridge sections were inescapable. I went over one strip of teeth safely. Then at the next section I thought about how dangerous it was... so in an attempt to be safe, I went over at an angle, so as to keep the wheel from getting jammed... but that made the wheel jerk the opposite direction and the bike suddenly stopped.

To anyone else who is also a bad man and is bicycling across a bridge, I strongly advise you to dismount and walk your bicycle across. Don't turn your wheel as you go across like I tried. Better to steer straight as possible and pray your back wheel follows through safely. If you do bicycle. Which you shouldn't. Even though I did.

There's a lump on my left shin, from hitting the bicycle as I fell over. My palms are red and tender from impacting the road, but surprisingly the skin is unbroken. All my stuff is fine.

No cars were behind me when I stumbled. I quickly gathered my fallen bags before the next wave of motorists could come close. They'd freak out, even though everything was fine. I walked my bicycle the rest of the way, about a third of the total length to go. 

Now it is raining in Vicksburg, Mississippi. My leg aches and I am sleepy.