Long Road Back Focuses on Moving Ahead to the Future

Late Sunday afternoon, I walked onto the Channel 3 set to chat with sports anchor Bryan Salmond and I couldn't believe the giant photos in the slide show that were as big as the room's back wall.

I gasped to myself when I saw my battered face that occupied a major section of the set's wall as part of the slide show.

I've come a long way since March 7, 2017 when a distracted motorist slammed into me, nearly killing me near Fort Pierce on Florida's east coast about 2 1/2 hours north of Miami. The size of photo caught me off guard.

It was a great experience to chat with Bryan at Channel 3.  Please click here to see the segment, Thank you Bryan for allowing me to tell my story.

It's been three weeks since the finished book I wrote on my comeback, return to Las Vegas and launch of LVSportsBiz.com  arrived at my Las Vegas home and promoting and selling, Long Road Back to Las Vegas: How Las Vegas and the Golden Knights healed a journalist's wounds.

In just the past few weeks, I enjoyed selling the book to friends in Tampa and Vero Beach, Fla. at book signings, reading a touching Facebook post by Vegas Golden Knights press box announcer Doug Marsh here in the Las Vegas area and a soaking up a touching review of the book by talented North Carolina writer Willie Drye.

Here's Doug Marsh's post:

Even Cameron Hughes, the sports arena fan igniter. offered a lovely and short review of the book:  "Great read. Inspiring! Full circle magic."

In addition, there was a fun time had by all talking LVSportsBiz.com and the book with Las Vegas sport radio personalities Brian Shapiro and Jason Dick -- We had a great time talking on their 6-8PM radio show on 720AM in Las Vegas.

It's been great talking one-on-one with people at book signings. The next book signing is set for Saturday Dec. 22 at the Giant Las Vegas bike shop in Summerlin at 2283 Rampart Blvd. Here's a flier for the book signing, which will follow the Giant Las Vegas Santa Hat Bike Ride.

Support people who write books by buying their books.

Long Road Back is $12 if you buy the book in person at a book signing and $16 if you would like me to ship you a copy. Email me at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com to arrange buying a book.

Or, you can buy the book on Amazon here.

When I inform people that a motorist rammed his car into me from behind on a quiet two-lane road in Florida, nearly claiming my life in March 2017, they ask, “What was the driver charged with by police?”

They assume there must be some type of negligent driving citation – especially when the motorist admitted to the deputy officer shortly after 8 a.m. March 7 that he didn’t see me in the roadway because he diverted his attention from the road to seeking his breathing inhaler in Chevy Cruze.

But the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office never issued a ticket to driver Dennis Brophy for slamming his car into me as I bicycled on a road in a small town called St. Lucie Village near Fort Pierce on Florida’s East Coast.

The anger and bitterness of a police agency not citing a motorist for hitting me with his car, causing two broken vertebra, a bad concussion (a helmet saved me) and a battered right leg helped fueled my motivation to write a book about the recovery and my return to Las Vegas to start a business-news website covering Las Vegas’ expanding sports industry.

I was back in Florida for my nephew’s wedding this past weekend. And I took the opportunity to also weave in book signings in Tampa and Vero Beach and make a pit stop off I-95 that I did not plan.

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision in my way to the airport in Orlando to drop in on the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office administration building on Midway Road, about 10 minutes east of the interstate.

  

I thought I would give a book to the sheriff with an inscription that asked for an apology for never giving a ticket to a motorist who nearly killed me.

  

I went to the information desk and I asked to talk with the deputy sitting behind the protective, transparent barrier.

  

Deputy Alex Feola left his chair and came around the information booth to chat with me in the sheriff’s office lobby.

Feola was polite and professional. He looked like a fit 50-something and was disarming in his talking style. He was also empathetic. He shared that he understood the pain of knowing what it’s like to be hit by a car and not receive justice.

The deputy said his niece was killed by a drunk driver in Martin County with the driver avoiding jail time with an insanity defense that he said he was bought by the judge. He noted the killer of his brother’s daughter ended up in a home in Port St. Lucie, the biggest city in St. Lucie County, which is about two hours north of Miami.

Feola, as it turned out, was also a former New Yorker. He was from the Bronx before moving to St. Lucie County some 35 years ago, while I was born in Brooklyn and moved to Florida to work for the Palm Beach Post to report on the city of Port St. Lucie in 1994.

I explained to the deputy that I don’t harbor a grudge or any sense of vengeance, but I would like Sheriff Ken Mascara to read my book and get back to me about why a distracted driver who smashed into me while I bicycled March 7, 2017 did not even receive a ticket for failing to pass a bicyclist by a minimum distance of three feet – which is law in Florida.

Feola had a calming presence about him and we chatted for about 15 minutes or so. It was a good conversation and I gave him my LVSportsBiz.com business card, which he tucked inside the book. I wrote my number on the business card and Feola said the sheriff may call.

He said I survived the crash to continue my work, while I offered my condolences for losing a niece who had her whole life in front of her at 23 years old.

It was a respectful conversation. But I wonder if I’ll ever hear from the sheriff.