Crash!

Oh, what a day...
Already in the first bend, not even a sharp one, Axel and Heike crashed. I drove directly behind them and had to witness it firsthand. When I saw them drive into the cliff I thought: that's it, let's call 911 immediately because this couldn't have gone well. I stopped and ran back to the crash site while the others were shouted at to continue driving to the next parking spot. Heike suffered a minor leg injury and Axel bruised ribs - that's all. They got so unbelievably lucky. They crashed their bike into huge rocks, against a wall... They could've broken arms and legs or cracked their skulls open. But even the Harley was running perfectly fine! Ok, it looks miserable, but still!

It should have been a drive along a beautiful, winding road, but after the accident everyone was visibly shaken. Had the crash occured just a mile later, Axel and Heike would've fallen down a cliff. With that in mind, we drove at a really slow pace - also in order to not put any pressure on Axel.

The crash led to a little detour to the Oakland Harley Davidson center, where the Harley underwent a safety check. Once again, there was not a single grumpy

person in sight. On the contrary, I got into a conversation with one of the female employees and - once more - just had a blast with the locals.
The detour, however, cost a lot of time and so we were late to our Catamaran Tour that we planned (and already booked) for the evening. Heike couldn't walk very fast due to her injury, so Axel, her, and I decided to leave early and meet with the rest of the group at Pier 39. Well... Pier 39 is huge and we couldn't find them. Birgit called, asked us where we were, and tried to guide us to the boat, but unknowingly sent us into the wrong direction. Axel and Heike insisted that I leave them and run to the group, but... Oh boy. I just couldn't find them, neither Birgit nor Thomas picked up their phone again and I ran from one end of Pier 39 (almost Pier 37) all the way to the other. Did I mention yet, that I suffer from exercise-induced asthma? Running regularly helps delaying an attack and easing the effects, but I don't think I've ever run that fast over several minutes...

Let's just say that people on the Pier shouted "Oh my god! Lady, are you alright??" when I passed them at hyper speed, wheezing, and sounding like shortly before dying. I still missed the boat, so it was all for nothing and I almost collapsed at the closed gate of the landing stage. I was devastated.

In total, today wasn't exactly a perfect day:
- Axel and Heike had a serious crash
- Cipi (of all people!) tilted his bike over at the gas station
- We missed the boat :-(
- Tine stumbled and fell on her way back to the Hotel

In the end however, the evening still turned out great! Together with Axel and Heike as well as Martin and Tine, who didn't book the boat trip in the first place, I had a wonderful evening shopping, watching the sea lions at Pier 39, and having dinner at San Francisco's Hard Rock Café. I'm so happy I've found them! We already exchanged numbers and have started to share pictures with each other.

I'm starting to think that I might have missed the boat for a reason... If I hadn't missed it, I wouldn't have spent such a great evening with these special people in a special location. Still, I hope at least tomorrow everything goes as planned...