Road trip turns rough for Lynner

LYNN – A 70-year-old Lynn motorcyclist is recuperating in a Utah medical facility following a crash in Cedar Canyon that left him seriously injured and his girlfriend needing hospital treatment.Angelo “Angie” Albiero was on a cross-country road trip with his companion, Judy Pelletier, when the Sept. 18 accident occurred. The couple had parked their RV camper with a trailer attached at a nearby campsite and were exploring the back roads on Albiero’s Harley Davidson Heritage.A passerby found them on the side of the road and called for help.Pelletier was scratched and bruised, but Albiero, who was not wearing a helmet, fared far worse, with two skull fractures, a broken left leg, battered bones and serious road rash. He was flown by medical helicopter to a Salt Lake City trauma center.An aircraft engine machinist at GE-Lynn for 30 years until his retirement in 1995, Albiero has been riding motorcycles since buying his first in 1972.”I used to hang around the Buchanan with the Thursday Night Riders like John A.J. Paula, Jimmy Frazier, Mark Becket and Dick Cronin,” Albiero said Tuesday from his rehabilitation center bed in Sandy, Utah, referring to the Buchanan Cafe on Eastern Avenue. “Back in the ’70s we spent a lot of time at The Tides in Nahant. The beach was my spot.”When word of the canyon crash reached relatives back east, Albiero’s daughter, Susan, and son, Mike, flew to Utah. After ensuring their father’s injuries were not life-threatening, they tracked down the crumpled motorcycle and the RV.”My father is one of those people who always thinks positively. He’s a tough guy. He claims he will bounce back like a rubber ball and that he’s busy making lemonade out of lemons,” Susan Albiero said Tuesday. “He has lots of broken bones from head to toe on the left side of his body, road rash and one eye is sewn shut, but his memory is fabulous.”Albiero and Pelletier left Lynn in early August, setting out on a journey that took them cross country to the Black Hills of South Dakota for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, then on to Wyoming where they traveled Chief Joseph’s Highway and explored the Wind River Canyon.Three days were spent in Yellowstone National Park for a close look at geysers, canyons, rivers and waterfalls.They repeated the thrills in Glacier National Park, riding their motorcycle along the Road to the Sun. Once over the Rockies in Colorado, they drove to the top of Pike’s Peak and back down to the Valley of the Gods.”That was an awesome day,” said Albiero, still pumped up by the experience. “Later on we went to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, the Four Corners, Monument Valley, and then on to Moab, Utah.”It was there in the rugged Utah canyon lands along Route 14 between their campsite in Panguitch and Cedar City, that the crash brought their sojourn to an end.”We just did Bryce Canyon the day before and were on our way to Zion Canyon,” he said. “It was a sharp curve. We both ended up on the side of the road. Judy said the guy behind us pulled over and helped get me breathing.”Pelletier and her daughter, Cindy, are living in the RV, parked near the HealthSouth Rehabilitation Center, while Albiero works on getting well.”They’ll stay here until I can leave, which I hope will be before Halloween,” Albiero said. “I live in Dayton, Florida in the wintertime, so that’s where we will head. I’ll go there to recuperate and won’t be back in Lynn until May. I’m a snowbird. Haven’t seen snow in five years.”The couple originally planned to drive the RV as far as Albuquerque, N.M., where Albiero wanted to fulfill a dream of riding in a hot air balloon at a regional festival.”As long as I’m in bed, I guess I can take a few calls from friends,” he said. “But I’ll be out of here soon.”(Albiero can be reached directly at 801-565-6732 or by email at [email protected].)