Coles notes - lost a saw, hit a deer carcass on the way home. Busted up my car, but could have been worse.
The easy one first:
I managed to lose a saw that belongs to Ross. The saw is a red swede saw that is about 3ft. long. If anybody picked it up or found it in their vehicle let me or Ross know. Thanks.
Number 2 was an adventure.
I was heading home and was about an hour from North Bay. Novar for those that know where it is (just north of Huntsville). I was overtaking a car on the divided highway on a slight right turn, just before an off-ramp. At the last second, I saw something right in the middle of the road. I didn't have time to do anything. It was a dead deer carcass and a good sized one at that! It must have been recently struck. I hit it HARD. The rear end of my Passat went in the air, as I went over it. I managed to keep control of the car and pulled over. There were 2 vehicles stopped about 200m north of me, so I figure one of them probably hit it, but they drove off before I could find out for sure. I couldn't see a thing in the dark, so I drove the car a couple of miles north to a rest stop. What a mess! I picked out a bunch of deer flesh and looked over the car. It seemed mostly okay. I decided that I better go back and make sure that what I hit was a deer. I drove back and turned around. The car was starting to act real funny. I pulled up at the location where I hit it and I was able to confirm it was a deer. I also realized that I had a flat tire and a big chunk of plastic loose under the car. As I am changing the tire, the OPP drive up. They were great. They stayed with me as I changed the tire and packed my stuff back into the car. Once the tire was changed and I pulled the plastic out from under the car, I headed out. The car seemed to drive fine. Made it home with about an hour delay.
This afternoon, I was able to get under the car and start looking. Here is the tab so far:
- Flat Tire - 2 chunks of deer antler right through the tread. Fixed for free by Canadian Tire.
- Torn CV Boot. I figure the antlers probably got this too.
- Front and Rear Undertrays - all the plastic under the car is destroyed.
- Body Brace - there is a brace across the tunnel about mid cabin. The mount was completely torn from the body on one side.
Grille - part of the lower grille popped out. I was able to repair this tonight. Just had to pop it back in.
Rear Beam Axle - lower part of the axle (looks like a c channel - open end down) is bent. However I don't think it bent the axle itself.
Other than that, I have not found any other damage. I think I have been really lucky. I will be taking the car into our local VW dealer Monday morning to have it checked out. I doubt that there is enough damage to bother with a claim, so I am probably out of pocket the damage.
It was really tough conditions, rain mixed with snow - reducing the range of the headlights, the lights of the off ramp created a really dark spot right where the carcass was, the car I was overtaking blocked my view slightly. I think that if I had slammed on the brakes, the damage might have been worse. The front of the seemed to have went up and over with minimal damage. I guess the learning here is that there are tons of deer out there right now. Be careful - we saw a bunch around Bancroft.
The work day was a good day. Roads look to be in good shape and I will see you folks in 4 weeks!
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