Deer in the Headlights

Freaking Deer!

The repairs were completed on our truck and we finally got a load picking up on Tuesday in Indian Head, Maryland. Some cities have the strangest names. That load delivered in Patuxent River, Maryland. Maybe all the cities in Maryland have strange names?

Next we picked up in Dahlgren, Va and delivered in Yorktown Va. If you have a military background, you probably guessed that all these loads were in military bases. Fun times!

Deer damage

From there we headed to Richmond, Va and took it to Wilmington, Ma. The next day we got a load picking up in Ft. Devens, Ma that was supposed to be going to Nogales, Az. After we took off with it we were informed that the shipper changed his mind and now we were taking it to Chicago, Il.

We were really not happy about that, but there wasn't anything we could do. It was a nasty night out. Windy and rainy. John drove first and we saw a one vehicle accident on the passenger side of the road. Somehow the guy flipped his car. We can only assume speed had to be a factor.

After John's shift was over, I started driving. I was on the NY thruway (90). Cruising along, talking on the phone with the boys, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a deer standing in the left hand lane. I hit the brakes and kept it straight on the road but the stupid deer jumped right in front of me. It was so loud when it hit that the boys could hear it through the phone. I pulled off on the shoulder and John came flying up front to see what happened. I told him I hit a deer.

Poor truck, stupid deer

We got out and looked at the damage and we had coolant running on the ground. The headlight on the passenger side was knocked completely out. The hood was knocked at an odd angle. We weren't going to be able to drive it with the coolant leaking. About that time a cop pulled up and I told him what happened. He reversed down the road and found the deer laying dead off to the side. I was so happy that the stupid deer was dead!

Lost our coolant

The cop called the tow truck company and the guy showed up and hooked us up. We had him take us to the nearest Freightliner dealership and he dropped us off there. Our carrier found another truck to come and take over our load. They showed up right after we got there and John and the other guy transferred the load to their truck. It was the middle of the night so we slept in the truck until they opened in the morning. We got things set up with them and then packed our bags. There was a motel down the road a little ways so we called a taxi and had him take us over there.

We got checked in and we are now waiting for the truck to be repaired. I can only imagine how long this is going to take.