In case coming off of the Christmas and New Year's holidays AND a vacation didn't make going back to work hard enough... In case, all of the other events with the refrigerator and storm door didn't make the last few days exciting enough... I hit two deer at (relatively) the same time in my pickup truck (2000 Nissan Frontier King Cab 4x4 Sport).
So, it's a very cold Tuesday evening, around 6pm. It's very dark since, first it's winter, and second it was overcast all day. I have a variety of options in how I can get home. That particular day I chose my “scenic route”. It's not like Sunday afternoon drives in the back woods, but it's far enough from most traffic that I'm moving most of the time and prettier than most of the commercial and residential subdivisions along other routes.
Along the course of this route, there is a 90-degree right hand turn. I dare not take this turn much over 15, especially in the cold of winter, or I'll shoot off it's rather steep embankment into fairly dense woods. So, I make the turn and just begin to accelerate. I'm minding my business, paying attention to driving and THUD! I hit a deer on its broadside with the front of my truck. A literal fraction of a second later, THUD! Another deer hit my passenger side door. It all happened so fast I didn't see A THING other than a flash of fur in the corner of my right eye as the passenger door was impacted.
I stopped the truck and sat there for a while making sure I wasn't having a heart attack. I parked, got out and checked out the vehicle. The front was intact. The passenger door was dented just below the middle of the window and then again very close to the center of the door body. Seeing that I and my ride was fine, I walked around a bit to see if I could find the trespassers (loosely speaking). Nope. Not a sign. Neither animal was to be found. No tracks, fur, nothing. In fact, when an animal is hit like that, often they lose the contents of their bowels. That wasn't found either. So, I'm thinking that they're fine. It makes sense seeing how slowly I was going at the time.
So, it was certainly a heart-pounding experience, but other than the thrill, I'm no worse for wear. My truck is fine. The dents will just be added to the others already there... I'm just glad I was going slowly. Any faster and hitting two deer like that probably would have sent them through both glass panes and me into the hospital...
Next up: More broken glass!