>A car passing in the other direction honks his horn at me, I can't
>figure out why. Then I did, as a deer loomed up in my lane. There was
>oncoming traffic, so I couldn't swerve. I brake. I pump. Boom.
This reminded me of a drive I made from LA to upstate New York in my
Healey in the mid '60s. It started with a side run to southern Arizona
to watch some friends drive their co-owned Cobra in a hill climb in
Bisbee and then back up to Scottsdale where they lived. From there I
headed east getting almost to Albuquerque before the new tail pipe that
the BMC dealer in Phoenix had installed fell off. Then it was north,
through Colorado in route to I-80 east. Around 9 pm I was twisting
through the mountain roads going 70-80 on the straight stretches and
slowing as little as possible for the curves when it happen. About 100
feet ahead in my head-light beams was a deer in the right lane,
completely transfixed and staring back at me. It's hard to remember
much about the exact sequence of events but I know that I spent some
time in the ditches on both sides of the road and ended up on the right
shoulder going sideways tipped up on two wheels. For once I was very
grateful that Healeys were so low slung, otherwise I'm sure I would have
flipped over. Needless to say, I was very shaken after I came to a
stop. I got out and walked around a bit to calm down. I had to dig out
pounds of dirt and grass from the wheel wells before I could even drive
the car again.
So what did I learn from this hair-raising experience? Absolutely
nothing. Within a few minutes after I got up enough nerve to continue
driving on I was doing 70-80 through the straights and barely slowing
for curves. I saw a few more deer that night but none on the road.
Nowadays my wife sometimes gets on my back for being a bit on the
cautious side when I drive in heavy traffic but I figure I don't have a
lot of luck left and what little I do have I plan to save for driving
something other than a Japanese econobox or a Chevy van.
Roland
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