GC3M2X7 Get Well Soon MMACH5! (Event Cache) in Texas, United States created by Team

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A cache by Team_WingStar Message this owner

Hidden : Saturday, June 9, 2012

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Geocache Description:

A get together to honor MMACH5(Michael Tripp McNair) a local geocacher and avid cyclist who was seriously injured while riding near his home. This is a potluck event.

Harry Myers Park
815 E. Washington Rockwall, TX.
We will be in the west pavillion, close to the ballparks. We will be there from Noon-5pm and there is plenty to do out there.
Features of the park include: (offleash)Dog Park, Swimming Pool, three playgrounds including KidZone, walking trails, a sprayground, natural open space and a skate park.
SBK&Q will be bringing hot dogs, and we are bringing peach and blackberry cobbler so feel free to bring whatever else you want.
We will have a jumbo sized card for everyone to sign and hopefully we can get a group photo so that he can see that we are all rooting for a speedy recovery.

We had the honor of meeting Michael at this years Texas Challenge. We had extra room at our campsite and he needed a place to set up his tent and all the sites with electricity were booked up so we offered to let him share our site. We then agreed to team up and tackle the challenge together. We spent the night before the challenge around the campfire and got to know him a little. He was extremely nice and easy to get along with, and had some great stories to share.

Since the accident we've gotten to know more about him and all we can say is "Wow!" Not only is his SK8 series a well known series in the area(all are old skate parks that he used to skate at), he apparently has an affinity for dealing with snakes and reptiles. He is a survivor of Crohn's disease, and started cycling and using DART so that his wife could use their only car. It began with him riding his bicycle the extra few miles from the nearest DART station to his job and then he began riding all the way from his home in Garland to his job in Irving, about 25 miles each way, 3 days a week! Many who have seen him in all his cycling gear have shared a laugh over his neon colored apparel, and many reflectors and blinking lights that make him visible from afar(however it is all in the name of safety), he even created a rearview mirror that attached to his helmet. He is a cycling advocate and has worked with the city of Dallas to make it safer for cyclists, and he was a big part of getting DART to add bicycle racks to its buses.
On May 15, 2012 at about 11am, just a few blocks from home he was struck by a car(word is that the driver wasn't paying attention, aka texting) and he was knocked about 70 feet down the road. He sustained several very serious injuries, including a fractured neck, broken back, left hip broken, pelvis broken in several places, all ribs on the left side broken, punctured lung, and lacerated spleen. So far he has had surgery to fix his hip, had his ribs rebuilt, had an artery repaired to stop the bleeding in his spleen, and had a filter put in the artery to stop blood clots. They are still keeping him in a coma for the most part and he is still dealing with possible risk of infection in his lungs, and he has a very long road to recovery ahead of him. He won't be able to put any weight on his legs for about 3 months and they are hoping that he won't need surgery to repair his back.

We would like to say an extra special thanks to SBQ for reserving the pavilion for us.

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