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As Sandee Rabibeau drove north toward Fairbanks on the last Friday in August, she pulled off at Skinny Dick’s Halfway Inn, allowing her dog to heed the call of nature.

As Shelbee, the 6-pound white Pomeranian, jumped down, Rabideau heard a call of a different sort.

“We heard something in the bushes, but I didn’t know what it was,” she said.

Rabideau had stopped her car near the north end of the driveway at Skinny Dick’s. She thought at first that the noise was a cat or some other animal, but she kept listening when she pulled back on the road.

“When we left, I rolled down my windows and that’s when I heard him,” she said.

The faint cry came from Dick Olson, who had suffered a devastating motorcycle accident that morning and was lying out of sight, helpless.

Olson, who has been a mainstay at KJNP radio and TV for four decades, had been riding his motorcycle on the Parks Highway. He hit some gravel, skidded and tumbled into the brush. He came to rest on an embankment about 25 feet below the road.

He tried to crawl, but couldn’t move. The crash broke both of his ankles and his sternum. He cracked vertebrae in his back and neck.

Olson tried to throw his helmet to attraction attention, but he didn’t have the strength to get it up to the road. There was no cell phone coverage.

“I think I must have blacked out a bit. And then a lady stopped to take care of her dog, and I heard the door slam. That must have woke me up. As soon as I heard it, I hollered for help because I thought that was my only chance,” Olson said.

When Rabideau discovered Olson’s predicament, she told him that help was on the way. She drove about five miles to higher ground and called for an ambulance.

“It seemed like 50 miles,” she said.

After his two-hour ordeal in the ditch, Olson, 65, was taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital by medics from Ester. He spent two weeks in the hospital, with five days in intensive care.

Olson, now wearing a neck brace because of the broken vertebrae, talked to me on the phone Monday, sounding as chipper as ever from the bed where he spends most of his day. He got off his pain medication last week.

Olson said he looks forward to formally meeting Rabideau, who, with her husband, Don, owns the Clear Sky Lodge.

When he’s feeling up to it, she plans to invite him to stop by the Clear Sky Lodge on the Parks Highway near Anderson and enjoy “the best steak in Alaska.”

The highlight of Olson’s recovery to date occurred after his release from the hospital. He married Deana McKnight, the owner of the Good News Bible & Book Store on Gaffney Road. Olson had been a widower since his wife Bev died in early 2007 from cancer.

Olson, who rode motorcycles as a younger man and had this bike for a couple of years, said if he gets another motorcycle, “It will be one I can put up on a shelf.”

As Olson gains strength, his friends want the community to know about an event they are planning Sunday at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge to help him out of another ditch — a financial one.

“Thankfully, the Lord’s hand has never left this wonderful man who has dedicated his life to doing God’s work here in the Interior of Alaska,” Debbie Seeger said. “This past Wednesday, they took his casts off his ankles and we pray that he will be walking on his own by Christmas. Dick still needs to keep his neck brace on, and when he sits up in bed or in the wheelchair, he must have this body ‘armor’ on.”

Olson, a missionary at KJNP since before it went on the air in 1967, had never been hospitalized, taken a pain pill or suffered a broken bone before this. Now, he’s facing tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills that won’t be covered by Medicare.

The Dick Olson Medical Fund has been established at Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union, which has four branches in Fairbanks.

This Sunday, from 3-6 p.m. there will be a pasta buffet, live music, a silent auction and door prizes at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge. Admission will be $15.

All proceeds will go to the medical fund.

Tickets are on sale at KJNP, Good News Bible & Book Store and The Diner.

Seeger said the organizers are looking for more donations for the silent auction and cash contributions at the credit union. Silent auction items can be dropped off at the Good News Bible & Book Store.

For more information, call her at 474-4672.

If you have a column suggestion or comment, contact me at cole@newsminer.com or 459-7530.