[Taltarzac725]

Another of my mis-adventures with my Home Garden friends in Reno, Nevada involves a hill to the west of Virginia Lake. This residential street was quite steep and we would get moving quite fast on our bikes. We also had to make sure we did not go into traffic on the street which had cars driving around the lake. In addition Virginia Lake has a path around it for joggers, dog walkers, parents with baby carriages and the like. And then there is the Lake itself. If you do not turn in time you will go right into it with your bike. This was Mountain View Drive. That's the name of the street which was so attractive for us bikers.

Not attractive enough for some of us though as Plumas Street connects with Mountain View with the Washoe County Golf Course just to the west. One of our group knew of a path near there with a good steep incline on a hill with a barbed wire fence marking off the Golf Course from other property at its bottom.

We got our bikes into this area somehow and all took the run down a hill except that my turn was a little too sharp while I took the turn and sent me flying into the barbed wire fence where I was hung up. I looked over myself and it appeared like I did not have any new holes that were not supposed to be there. Until I looked at my right thumb which was slashed open to the bone and bleeding profusely. Now what to do? We were a good two miles or more from my parents house at 4645 Alder Drive. We would have to get down Mountain View if we wanted to go back by the Lake.

We probably took Plumas Street down to Moana Lane however and I became more and more scared about what to tell my mother about this accident of mine. I left a blood trail from near the Washoe County Golf Course down Plumas to Moana Lane then to Virginia Street to Peckham Lanethrough to Alder Drive. Going by some of the homes of families when knew trying to hide my thump somewhat while bleeding over my clothes. The group of boys followed or lead the way. I felt very little from my thumb's wound.

All this commotion going to 4645 Alder Drive and when I finally get home and show my Mom my bleeding thumb she sends some of the boys home, puts me in the car with something wrapped over my thumb, and takes me to a doctor. One or two of these boys tagged along to see how many stitches I would get and for some support.

Three stitches later and I am no longer bleeding but am on anti-biotics and pain pills.

This was before another one of this perils had a boy shoot a BB into my left pinky but that what I just blamed on the attractiveness of my body to barbed wire when I tried to explain the injury to my parents. Usually my clothes would be enough of a sacrifice to the barbed wire God but sometimes these would capture some of my flesh.

Books and a quiet life were becoming more-and-more attractive to me because of the near and sometimes not so near escapes I would have from getting hurt in my teens. I could read about someone else crashing into barbed wire or getting shot with a BB gun rather than experiencing these myself.

A scar to show the ladies though according to some family friends and it made me appear a little less of a nerd after I did start living life only through books. No more rattlesnake hunts for me was becoming more-and-more a wise choice. Nor rides down Mountain View Drive or near the property that bordered the Washoe County Golf Course.

(A section of something I am busy writing). Probably call this "The Thumb".

If you are familiar with Reno, Nevada you might recognize some of these streets. I have met a number of people here in the Villages and even at Doggie Doo Run Run who have visited Reno and even a few that also lived there for a while.