Damn Near Died...

I'm one hurtin' unit today.

It was a fairly eventful evening last night, as Lon (Katie's dad) and I decided to attend a high school playoff football game. We were going to watch Chester play Canistota-Bridgewater (casa de Troy) in Bridgewater.

We were on Highway 81, approaching Salem. Lon and I were just sitting back, shooting the bull about sports and such, then all of a sudden, out of the misty black -- shot out a streak of gray. We both knew what it was, as every Midwestern driver knows that they would prefer not to hit one of these...

...a big, stupid white-tailed deer. A doe.

We saw it for a split second. This wasn't no little puny Bambi, this was one huge mama. There was absolutely nothing Lon could do, we were going to hit it. For that split second that we saw it, it appeared that it was going to attempt to JUMP us. Instinctively, I ducked and prepared for impact. Lon hit the brakes.

Boom.

I looked down and there was glass everywhere. I was covered in it. It didn't occur to me later that the dome light was on inside Lon's Ford Explorer. I looked up -- the whole front windshield was smashed and caved in. There was a huge hole right in front of Lon, the glass cutting into his hands. The front part of the roof of the Explorer was pushed back from the impact. All of these thoughts went through my head in a matter of milliseconds.

I looked at Lon, his baseball cap missing and the driver's side window blown out -- he looked dazed, still screeching on the brakes and trying to regain control of the vehicle. I reached over and grabbed the wheel, not really knowing how Lon was at that point, but just trying to provide some assistance if we were going to go into the ditch. After the vehicle was stopped with a few curse words, I told Lon that we should pull over on the shoulder. It was then that I turned around and noticed that the back window was also blown out.

Luckily for us, there was no traffic coming from either way and we were only about a mile and a half north of Salem. We drove slowly into town and reached a gas station, where we got some help. Lon's hands were cut up pretty bad, including small scratches on his face. The person working at the convienence store called the Sherriff Deputy and he came later. He asked us if we wanted the deer, we prompty said, "No."

Besides being covered in glass, there was deer hair EVERYWHERE. It covered the inside of the cab, especially all down the outside of the driver's side of the Explorer. I almost had to think that the deer was with us inside the cab from seeing all of the hair.

While Lon was talking to the deputy, I called Glenda (Katie's mom) and informed her of the accident. She was relieved that we were all right, but behind us was Katie's two younger brothers, Matt and Mike. Glenda called Mike and told them what happened, and Mike called me. I told him to see if they could see the deer, let us know.

They pulled into the gas station and immediately they told us that there was nothing left of the deer. The carcass literally exploded and the remains were spread over two lanes, including the shoulders. Later on at the football game, word had spread that we were involved in an accident with a deer, and a few people thought that a semi-truck had hit it.

"Nope," Lon said. "It was us."

Going through the vehicle and getting our stuff, I noticed that the driver's side mirror was in the back seat of the Explorer and again, the glass was everywhere. The steering wheel was bent out of shape, and we couldn't even shut the headlights off because the knob was broken. I still cannot figure out why the dome light came on when we hit.

After all was said and done, with Lon patched up -- being the sports fan we are, we got a ride from the deputy and he drove us to Bridgewater to watch the football game.

On the way home, we got a ride from Katie's uncle and aunt. We saw the remains north of Salem and it was probably the most gruesome sight that I have ever seen. I could not believe that an Explorer, travelling the speed limit, could do something like that. Blood and entrails everywhere.

Lon thinks he has a broken finger or hand, it swelled up pretty good. As for me, no cuts on me whatsoever. Today, I've got a pretty sore neck -- I'm thinking when I ducked I hit the dash with my head.

Overall, that was probably the most scariest moment in my life up to this point. The deer jumped and damned near joined us in the front seat. Lon kept the vehicle straight and I reacted right away, checked to see if he was alright and helped him get his bearings back.

As for Katie, she was cutting other people's hair when she heard from her mom about the accident. She was a mess upon hearing of it. She was finally glad that I returned home at around 11:30 last night, then things returned to normal, just like they should be.

Hopefully I can get some pictures of the vehicle -- it's totalled, never to be driven again.