Jake’s Goldwing got totaled this weekend.

It started raining about the time we were leaving the boys’ grandparents house on Saturday night. Sarah hopped in the Explorer with Nick and me, but Jake didn’t want to leave his bike so he decided to ride it home. After leaving the storm quickly worsened. Jake tried to stop at his step-dad’s house to wait it out, but an unfortunate chain of events unfolded before he could get there.

The wind knocked down a tree into the road. Because of the weather and location that the tree fell it was difficult to see and he ended up sliding into it and getting hung up on one of the branches. Shortly after a truck came and smoked the bike at full speed. He wasn’t on it at the time and fortunately no one was hurt.

The three of us got to the scene a few minutes later. Traffic was backed up (only as much as a country road at 9:30 during a storm would be) and some good samaritans were towing the tree off of the road. I snapped a quick picture before they were finished. It was raining like a mother furker and made for a difficult photo op.

Jake’s bike was smishy-smashed. The boys collected Jake’s belongings and pieces of the bike that were scattered about the road. We waited for over an hour for the cops to show up for the police report. Afterwards the boys pushed the bike to their step-dad’s house, about two houses down the road. We’re talking country length properties here. It was no small feat. I tagged along to hold the flash light and I’d like to think my verbal efforts were motivational. Nick almost bit it a few times, and I’m pretty sure Jake tried to drop the bike on him on purpose.

Of course the truck that hit him barely had any damage at all.

I only took a few photos. The pouring rain and pitch black conditions didn’t make it easy. You can view the rest here in the gallery.

Fortunately no one was hurt. Things can be replaced, people can’t.