This weekend was supposed to be our camping trip shakedown ride. The plan was to do bike out to do a long ride out to Kickapoo State Park, spend the night and then come back the next morning. For many of us, I think this was the most anticipate training ride yet, not only because it would be our longest ride yet, but because camping is always fun and exciting. I will admit, it surprised me a little to learn that a few riders had never been camping before in their life, and that this would be a first for them.Before we could go camping though, we had to get there. Our plan was to break the day into two rides. The first would be a 42 mile loop into countryside for Uni High's Boomerang ride, which benefited a local Women's shelter, followed by a 30 mile ride from Urbana to Kickapoo. Because of the trip, and because we were participating in another group's ride, our departure time was bumped up an additional hour to 8am in order to get the van packed and make it to the ride registration on time. Geoff (one of our sponsors) was kind enough to cover the registration fee for all of this year's riders, so after collecting our route sheet and snacking on a few bagels, we set off into the morning sun.From the beginning it was clear that today would not be an easy day. Winds were a constant 20-25mph from the southwest, meaning it would be slow going for the segments that were into the wind. To complicate things, my rear tire got a flat before we had even left town! I don't know if I'd call it an honor, but it was the first flat that anybody had had on a training ride to date, which in it's own respect was momentous occasion. Being prepared for such a situation, I had the bike flipped over and tools out shortly thereafter, however it still took several minutes to get the tube off and the new one in, putting our group at least 10 minutes behind everybody else. While we aren't racing, it's still a good feeling to know that you aren't the last group, so we set off, set on catching up with the next group.We eventually caught up with the next group on the outskirts of Sidney, some 14 miles later. Sidney, as it is known to many in the cycling community is home to the Dairy Barn, which is apparently a very good place to go to get ice cream. For a few minutes, the three of us joked about calling the ride short and just hanging out there for a few hours, but in the end we plodded along leaving town headed to Homer.This is when our second mishap struck, once again to me. While I'm still not sure entirely what happened, I know that I was the last person in our group of three, travelling around 20-22mph (the wind was slightly at our backs, pushing us along). Whether it was a gust of wind, a rock, or just not holding onto the handlebars firmly, but all of a sudden the bike was sliding out from under me and I was going down. I hit the ground and scraped myself up pretty well, my right knee and right elbow seemed to take the majority of the fall, however there were also scrapes on my thigh, shoulder, and on my forehead where my helmet pushed against my head. All things considered, it was about the closest you could come to a best case scenario. Except for a few minor cuts on my knuckles, my hands were unscathed, I had fallen onto asphalt (instead of gravel), which kept the scrapes clean, and whatever cars that were behind me managed to stop in time. I picked myself up and and collected my cycling accessories which had scattered themselves around where I had fallen. While I spent a few minutes collecting myself from the shock of falling, Geoff and his friend took a quick look over my bike and readjusted a few bits that had been bumped out of alignment due to the fall. While we were doing that, the group we had passed about 20 minutes ago had caught up to and passed us yet again. While I was sore and shaken up, I was not bleeding heavily and not in desperate need of medical attention. Eventually we made it back onto our bikes an continued along to the designated rest stop.I was a bit surprised to find out that they didn't have a first aid kit with them there, but they ran to a local gas station to get some rubbing alcohol so I could at least clean out my wounds. After restocking on carbohydrates and water, we turned back to the west and into the wind. Most of the team was waiting at the rest stop so we did a bit of reshuffling of groups and at this point, I was more than happy to travel in one of the slower groups. Geoff and his friend went ahead with a few riders though we would catch up with them about half an hour later as something on Geoff's friend's bike had broken, so they were waiting for the support vehicle to arrive. It turns out that the bad luck wasn't limited to just me today.Eventually we made it back to Urbana, and set a departure time of 2pm for our next leg out to Kickapoo. In the hour and a half I had before then I decided it would be a good idea to purchase a new tube (since I didn't have any patched spares at the time) and then go home for a shower and bandages. I had two options for getting a new tube, either by visiting Durst, where I had originally purchased my bike, or going to The Itty Bitty Bike Shop at Rentertainment. The nice thing about The Itty Bitty Bike shop was that a portion of the proceeds went support local cycling organizations, so in the end, I made my way over there. After picking up a new tube it was time to go home to refuel and clean up before heading out again.While I was pretty set on still going camping (after all, this was the big event of the spring), I had already planned to ride along in the support vehicle for at least the ride out that day. It soon became apparent that I was not going to be able to clean myself up sufficiently before then, so I received approval to get driven out later. Then as my bandaging continued, my roommates began pressuring me not to go at all. Eventually I caved under evidence that I might have been suffering from a minor concussion and made sure it was ok that I missed the camping trip. So instead of eating lentils and bean soup that evening, we went out for a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesdays and slept in my comfortable bed. While I certainly wish I could have gone, in retrospect, it really wasn't a good idea and I'm glad that my roommates were there to stop me from putting myself in a potentially worse situation.