I am just a newbie... but I tasted my first dirt  a couple of days ago. I took a little spill.  Was not going very fast. Not sure what happened, it felt like wind was pushing me toward the right, the next thing I knew I was in the dirt. Thank God for no trees, or dumb A$$ people on my tail. Two people stopped to help get it out of the ditch, and be sure I was ok.   The bike has some scratches, and I busted the wind shield.    The Brake and clutch levers had to be adjusted too. But I did get right back on after being sure it was road worthy, which to me, was the important thing. Spills happen, and we learn from them. Hokey Smokes though. I could hardly get outta bed this morning, I am so sore!

The bike might have been slightly on my right leg, but I got up quickly and turned off the kill switch the key. Thank God for Joe Rocket! I would have really messed up my arm without my Armour!  

A couple of crosswind tips from another site:

There are a couple of things that you can do to make the experience less stressful, however. For example, you can quit white-knuckling your grips. When you hold on tight you also tend to stiff arm your controls. That, as we've talked about before, merely allows front-end instability to propagate into the rest of the motorcycle. Relax your grips and droop your elbows. Allow your bike to be a bit unstable. Drive in the CENTER OF YOUR LANE. Lean forward and down to reduce your profile, and snug up your jacket.

Should you anticipate those gusts? Should you just respond quickly to a gust in order to remain in control and traveling in a straight line? No, and no. Your bike will NOT travel in a straight line. That is, as long as you allow it to do its thing, your bike will be modestly blown off course with a gust and the result of that movement is EXACTLY the same as any other minor course change - you will need modest counter-steer input to correct it - the CG of your bike will then be on the side the wind came from and the result is that it will lean towards the wind.

Crosswinds can be murder if you are leaned way over in a curve. Don't, if you can avoid it.

As a result of a crosswind your bike will move off course and normal modest counter-steer will lean it into the wind. A strong gust will blow you out of track. So, correct your steering, gently, and keep going.

Note ... there are TWO times when a gusty crosswind changes your bike's direction of travel: when it hits, and when it stops. Both require that you allow the bike to respond and use normal modest counter-steering. (When it quits you will be leaned over and, as a result, your bike will move towards where the wind WAS coming from until you straighten it up.

If crosswinds involve huge short gusts, go park the bike. If the crosswinds are more sustained, pucker up and keep going.
http://www.msgroup.org/Tip.aspx?Num=140&Set=&SearchTerms=wind

We all understand countersteering, don't we?

The mysterious secret of how to gain control of a leaning motorcycle is called countersteering." As the name implies, initiate a turn, he must first steer in the opposite direction as might be presumed. This is needed in order to get the bike to perform the trick of leaning into the curve of the road. This is how a bike is "balanced." Although motorcycle racers are paid millions of dollars a year for their knowledge of countersteering, this same technique is also required for every street rider.

Steering left to turn left will only make the bike lean (tip over) to the right. It is impossible to steer a bike like a car. While riding around a curve, try turning into the turn and see what happens. If you enjoy excitement, you're going to love this experiment, assuming you survive, of course. Although it is possible to slowly follow most curves of the road without consciously countersteering, the ability to turn quickly will give a rider more options to work with and provide a greater margin of safety—he is in total control of his machine. Ignorance of countersteering is the root of all fear of motorcycles, and quite possibly the cause of most single-motorcycle accidents in which the motorcycle fails to negotiate a curve.

Unfortunately for millions of citizens, reverse psychology is at work here: the motorcycle rider must steer towards danger—towards the outside of a curve, or towards a vehicle blocking the road—rather than away from it. Actually, he initially steers towards the obstacle to force the bike to lean, then rapidly steers (leans) away from the hazard. Many times a rider can find himself in the middle of a decreasing radius turn and panics when he sees he is going to go off the roadway. He must consciously be aware of countersteering so he will know to steer toward the shoulder of the road to force the bike to lean further into the turn and tighten his turning radius to match the tightening curve in the road. Obviously, an uneducated rider is not going to suddenly figure this out during his one second of panic.

The initial countersteering effort, pushing on the right handlebar grip (turning the handlebars left) will utilize centrifugal force to tip the balance of the bike over to the right. As the bike falls over to the right in its controlled fall initiated by the countersteering, the rider finds himself leaning to the right and executing his right hand turn. The opposite of this occurs in a left hand turn.
http://genjac.com/BoomerBiker/Countersteering.htm

30 seconds into my first experience on a motorcycle I crashed. Thought since I had so much experience on bicycles that I would be fine. I consider overconfidence and ignorance to be the root causes of my crash. I didn't understand counter steering at that point.

30 seconds into that first ride I went to turn left and the bike didn't respond like I thought it should. I panicked and grabbed the brakes. BIG MISTAKE! Locked up the front one and went down. The bike and I still have the scars from it. The helmet saved a dent in my left temple but I wasn't wearing a jacket. Got a good size scar on my left elbow to remind me of what happened.

Shortly after that I took the MSF class and learned to ride the right way.

Hope you are okay from your spill. Check the bike over good or have somebody do it for you. You wouldn't want to have another wreck because something broke. Could end up being a lot worse.

Glad you're OK, LS...

If it makes you feel any better...my first bail was on pavement...during my test!!!  

I got an "OUCH!" on three levels: Bike, Body, and Ego...

my first fall was about 2 seconds into my first ride... yami rd350... my more experienced pal told me "rev it to redline, drop the clutch"... instant wheelie, resulting in my really jerking the throttle open... backflip, bike on chest, flailing arms and legs was the inevitable result..lol  couple months later, dropped it dragging on a gravel road... took about an hour and a half to pick all that gravel out of my hip with a buck knife...lol  back in them days, it was wrangler denim, not joe rocket...lol wait until your first 60 mph encounter with a wasp or hornet... very exciting!!

If you have a friend with a dirt bike, ask to use it to learn about dirt.
A Savage is not a good bike to learn dirt on since the controls are so far forward.
If you learn about dirt on a dirt bike, you will gain in confidence. Some, but not all that you learn can be used on the Savage.
It is good you wore protection, and got back on the bike right away.
If the bike is ridable, that is always a good thing to do for peace of mind.

Phelonius

I dropped mine back in January.. have some permanent road rash on the left arm just below the elbow  One thing I learned about it was don't ride unless you're in the right mentality for riding (I was having a very bad day that day)..

Didn't have time to work on mine and just getting back to fixing it after the drop... unfortunately when I went down I skid into a curb (which stopped my slide)... needless to say I'm now learning how to align the front fork  

Did pick her up again right afterwards and get back on, though haven't gotten to ride since putting her back in the garage.. but getting the itch to fix it and start riding again..