With all this talk about deer collisions (and I hope
both the Spit & the deer fared well), I just had to
toss in my $ .02 worth of my oddball animal bumping
stories.
Both occurred while living in Florida (which
explains the odd nature of the creatures), and both
were while driving my pumped-up Pinto-powered Alpine
MKII, (which explains the odd nature of the driver).
#1- Miccosukkee Rd. connects Fla. & Ga. and has got to be
one of the most beautiful fast-driving canopied roads
in the state. Flogging the Alto (Alpine + Pinto) hard
on this road one day I came 'round a nice left-hander &
found what appeared to be a *very* large limb of a tree
lying across my lane ! Feeling much like the Speedster
scene in Doc Hollywood, I braked & swerved into the
other lane, hopefully just enough to miss it but not
enough to toss the car out of control, when much to my
surprise the "limb" moved into the other lane as well!
With impact imminent, I could now see that the limb was
in fact about 4' of Florida 'gator scampering as fast
as he could for the safety of the marshes on the other
side of the road! Too late tho, BWHAM !, up and over him,
and then a quick glance to the rearview saw his just his tail
receding into the grass. I drove a bit further on
(just in case there were more of them right there),
then stopped to check the car. No visible damages,
except I had lost about 10yrs of my life. And no, I
did not go back to check on Mr. Gator........
#2 On a long flat forgotten road between Hiway 20 & 90,
I decided one day to wick up the old Alto for a bit. We
were holding 80 or so, when I saw a group of buzzards
off on the right hand side of the road, having a
mid-afternoon snack. No problem thought I, they'll
leave long before I get there. Well, as I approached,
one did leave, then another, and another, until only
one remained, & I was now closing fast. I was watching this
guy intently, as he just meandered into the middle of
my lane & sat still. "A game of chicken with a buzzard"
made me laugh, but still he held fast. I moved over
just a bit, just in case, and so did he. This was it,
but I really never believed he would stay there, which
of course he did. And just before impact, I could have
sworn he put his head down like a bull about to charge.
We connected dead-on the passenger side front wheel,
with quite a jolt. Buzzards are pretty big, I remembered
just about then. Another thing I remembered about
buzzards after I stopped to survey the damage (which
consisted of a fairly significant ding in the wing),
was that buzzards eat *stinky dead things* & therefore
leave a stinky dead mess on your auto when you hit
them. I learned to avoid buzzards at all costs after
that.
cheers-
dstone@sc9.intel.com
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