Hi:
This morning, I was driving to my parents' house. The weather was
sunny and the temps were in the 60s. A beautiful day to be wheeling
down the road.
I was cruising down the two-lane county highway a few miles from
their house when a wild turkey (the bird, not the booze) decided to
leave its roost at the side of the road. The turkey flew about three
feet off the ground as it crossed the highway.
I had no chance to swerve or to hit the brakes. The turkey nailed my
truck square in the middle of my grille. The truck groaned when the
bird smacked into the front end. It wasn't a glancing blow, it was a
head-on.
I drove through a large cloud of feather and then saw the bird roll
off the driver's side after a few seconds. It was pretty dead and
didn't have many feathers left. Since I was only a few miles from my
parents house, I kept driving. I said to my girlfriend "Well, it
probably screwed up the grille but at least it didn't puncture the
radiator." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, a fine spray
appeared on my windshield. It got heavier and then I saw a stream of
some fluid crawling up the hood toward me. Then the cab filled with
the sweet smell of antifreeze.
I looked down at the old temp gauge and it was climbing fast. I
nursed the track to my parents' house and when I stopped, a cloud of
steam rolled out from under the hood.
I jumped out and surveyed the damage: My grille is smashed-in about
three inches and the radiator is punctured. I couldn't even get the
hood open.
I left the truck at my parents' house and they gave me a ride back to
Madison. I'll post to the list after I talk with my insurance agent
and I find out how much this is gonna cost me.
For those of you whose turkey experience is limited to eating a few
slices of bird at Thanksgiving, let me tell you about this bird.
Wild turkeys can get pretty large in our part of the world. My dad
drove his Dak out to the spot where I whacked the turkey to see how
big it was. He picked it up and estimated its weight to be at least
25 lbs. He thought it was a pretty good sized bird.
Imagine me firing a 25 lb projectile out of a cannon at 60 mph at the
front of your truck. That's what happened.
I'm just glad that it didn't come through the windshield. I've heard
too many stories about deer getting up above the front-end of
vehicles and coming through the windshield. I'm sure this turkey
would have had a similar effect on my windshield if it had been
flying twelve inches higher.
I took plenty of pictures of my smashed hood but I don't know how
well they will turn out (the front-end is all black, doesn't show the
dent very well through the viewfinder).
My mom jokingly suggested that I need to install pushbars on the
front of my Dakota to fend off the turkeys. :^)
=Scott Vieth http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/~scottv
'68 Camaro RS, 327/PG
'97 Dakota Sport 4x4 Club Cab, Magnum V8/5-spd, Gibson cat-back, FIPK-clone
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