No roadkill today
Yesterday I went to Weldon to get some things I need for an upcoming trip to South Carolina. Just a day trip, in and out. I drove out on the farm to do a little sightseeing.
Almost all the rice has been harvested so it won't be long before they start on the soybeans. The corn has been in since mid-September.
As I was driving back in after my tour, I noticed a small inimal on the egde of the road. It looked, from a distance, like a healthy cat. As I got nearer, the cat turned into a raccoon. A little odd to see in broad daylight.
As I got closer, I steered to the opposite side of the road and slowed down just to be safe. Closer still, and the raccoon decided it wanted to be in the woods on MY side of the road. I locked up the brakes. The raccoon disappeared under the front of my truck. OH SHIT!!! The truck slid into the ditch and adopted an odd angle of repose. The raccoon jumped the ditch and disappeared again, this time into the cattails. I had not touched a hair on the 'coon, but I had hit the ditch so hard it shut off the truck. Thank God the airbag didn't deploy!
The undercarriage of the truck was stuck on the gravel between the ditch and the road. The front driver's side wheel was buried and all the four-wheel drive in the world did no more than sling mud all over everything within thirty feet of me.
I had to climb up to the passenger side of the truck to make an exit. I walked into town and got one of the farmers to come pull me out with a tractor. He said I should have run over the raccoon. The truck started and after hosing it off, didn't seem to have undergone any damage.
The truck's OK. I'm OK. And the raccon is not roadkill.
Almost all the rice has been harvested so it won't be long before they start on the soybeans. The corn has been in since mid-September.
As I was driving back in after my tour, I noticed a small inimal on the egde of the road. It looked, from a distance, like a healthy cat. As I got nearer, the cat turned into a raccoon. A little odd to see in broad daylight.
As I got closer, I steered to the opposite side of the road and slowed down just to be safe. Closer still, and the raccoon decided it wanted to be in the woods on MY side of the road. I locked up the brakes. The raccoon disappeared under the front of my truck. OH SHIT!!! The truck slid into the ditch and adopted an odd angle of repose. The raccoon jumped the ditch and disappeared again, this time into the cattails. I had not touched a hair on the 'coon, but I had hit the ditch so hard it shut off the truck. Thank God the airbag didn't deploy!
The undercarriage of the truck was stuck on the gravel between the ditch and the road. The front driver's side wheel was buried and all the four-wheel drive in the world did no more than sling mud all over everything within thirty feet of me.
I had to climb up to the passenger side of the truck to make an exit. I walked into town and got one of the farmers to come pull me out with a tractor. He said I should have run over the raccoon. The truck started and after hosing it off, didn't seem to have undergone any damage.
The truck's OK. I'm OK. And the raccon is not roadkill.
posted by steve | 12:06 PM
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