Deer!!!

So Nolie, McLusky, TP, Hodgey, and I are on our way to the Smokey's for a backpacking trip. We've got all our shit packed in Nolie's truck and McLusky's car, and we are headed up I-95. Somewhere in South Carolina, at about 2 am, Nolan wakes me out of a daze by yelling, "SHIT!!" I look up just in time to see a rotting deer carcass laying in the headlights. We're traveling about 80 mph, and it's just too late to do anything but hope that the truck has enough ground clearance to avoid hitting it. Luckily for us, it did, but as we made a clean pass, we both looked back to see if McLusky would have the same luck. As we were watching, we saw McLusky's headlights swerve a bit, then launch into the air like The Duke's of Hazard in San Francisco. They managed to stay on the road and for the next 5 miles or so, Nolan and I thought that everything was alright. Then, as we approached an exit, the headlights on McLusky's car started flashing (the universal sign for "We need to; get something to eat/pee/get gas/stretch"). So we got off at the exit, pulled into the nearest gas station, parked the truck, and jumped out to stand up for a minute. As McLusky's car pulled into the parking lot, a horribly disgusting smell filled the air. At the time, Nolan and I thought that something had died behind the building, but as our boys' car pulled up and parked next to us we began gagging from the stench emanating from their vehicle. Even before the car stopped, all three doors opened and TP and Hodgey jumped out screaming, holding their noses, and ran from the car. McLusky did the same as soon as he got the engine turned off. None of us could stand to be within 50 feet of that thing, much less trapped inside with the heat on.

It turns out, that rotting deer corpse literally exploded when it caught the undercarriage of the car. When it got light out a few hours later, we found one of those "do it yourself" car washes and you would not believe the nastiness that came from the underside of McLusky's car. There was blood, pieces of skull, brains, fur.... no wonder it reeked. I don't know how those guys rode another 300 miles in that thing.

When we got home from the trip, McLusky had to sell the car. He traded it in at a dealership for a new VW. A couple of days later, they called him and asked about a strange odor coming from the vents when the AC was on. Heh heh. I'm glad I wasn't car shopping that day.

Moral of the story: Dead deer smell really, really bad. So don't hit one if you can avoid it.



Peace.