So.
5am. yikes. I’m awake, because I have to be.
530 – on the road – darn, coffee shops aren’t even open yet.
630 – cruising down I-70 near Concordia, MO – 18 wheeler next to me in right lane, I’m in the left.
Deer season opens this weekend, and apparently it’s “mating season” as well.
I’m cruising along when out of the corner of my eye I see this deer running full speed out in front of the Semi next to me. The look in the beast’s eye is all to familiar as his hoof first hits the pavement – “I immediately regret this decision!” (said in Will Ferrell’s tone of voice)
So you know where this is going already -
I had heard several stories recently of bad accidents because of deer, and all those stories ended with “don’t swerve to miss it, you’ll just have a worse accident.”
That exact thought came to mind in the quarter of a second I had to respond so I grabbed the wheel with both hands and went for it – it was a-maz-ing. It was quite an impact, which I won’t describe in detail on here, but then the rest of it flew over the top of my car.
My hood was all crumpled and I felt like I had been in a Nascar wreck – (only referring to the kind in Taladega Nights or Days of Thunder since I don’t really watch Nascar) – I kept on cruising another mile up to the next exit and stopped at a gas station.
Everything seemed to be fine, other than the look of things – So I got back in and headed a couple more miles down the road until the coolant light came on. Bummer. Blew the radiator. (I say that now, as if at the time I was one of those cool “car guys” that knew what was really going on)
(the sun is rising in the background)
So I wound up in Concordia:
I looked at it as a chance to meet some new people. Gas station folks, tow truck guy, repair place guy, and Enterprise Rental car dude. In all, they were incredibly friendly. I almost felt like I was back in Nashville and was able to get my good ol’ southern accent out for a couple hours.
2.5 hours in the gas station waiting on a tow truck, followed by several calls from Enterprise letting me know that everyone was out of cars and they had no idea when they were coming in. The gas station folks were awesome, including giving me a free cup of coffee and half hour conversation about gas prices and how the biz is run and how the economy is killing their little mom and pop shop. It was sad. The gas prices have fallen so fast (which is good for us) but they bought 8000 gallons at a much higher rate, and now have to be competitive with their prices and are losing money.
So back to my randomness.
I was able to laugh about most of it – and keep good perspective on it. I was supposed to be in Rolla, MO today filming – I knew it wasn’t going to happen by 1030am – another camera guy was able to fly down and handle it – done – no need to be in a hurry or anxious about anything – plus it wouldn’t have helped.
- 40 minute ride to Warrensburg in a tow truck with a really friendly dude – we talked about his kids in college and line dancing (yes, we did) – my insurance folks handled things pretty great except for saying “you won’t have to pay for anything till later, we’ll take care of the tow truck” – then the driver says “they told me this was going to be cash and it’s $120″ – “oh, of course, let me just grab that…right…here…” then I ran. Ok, no, I didn’t, but would’ve been awesome if I did – besides, the car was already off the lift.
So I walk into “Bent & Dent” – the collision repair place in Warrensburg. I figure I’m going to hang out a bit till Enterprise comes to get me whenever they finally get a car. I walk in with my laptop thinking I’ll get some editing done – dude there is like, oh, my son can take you Enterprise – making it clear that I wasn’t about to sit in his lobby and wait – it was a little strange.
Person #7 on my random run-in – this other dude that takes me in his sweet big ol’ diesel 4 door truck over to Enterprise. In the south we’d call them Hillbilly-Four’s instead 4×4’s.
I get to Enterprise and get the same kind of weird welcome that was clear 1. we don’t have cars and 2. we don’t want you waiting in our lobby. I’m wearing a suit and tie folks, come on, what’s the big deal here?
I elect to go “walk” to a coffee shop since the dude at Enterprise says “all I got is a 12 passenger van and I don’t want to pick you up in that” – “oh…of course not, because, you’re Enterprise and you’ll ‘pick me up’ unless all you have is a 12 passenger van.” I think I remember seeing that on the TV commercial in the fine print…
Long story short, I wound up getting a rental car, getting a bit lost, then finding my way back to KC by 1230 only to be called shortly after by this guy to go cover another last minute call-in that i’m currently sitting in – it could go till 8pm they think. We’ll see if I stay awake that long.
If you know me, you’ll see the humor in all this – if you don’t, welcome to my world.
P.S. – Jerry is 65 and still smiling. Happy Birthday big guy.
