Last night, Rachel and I went to the Dayton Mall to do some shopping. On the way, my Jimmy odometer turned 256,666 miles. I told Rachel that meant we are likely to have a run in with a deer (“666” being the “number of the beast”). She said maybe two for that number! We laughed, but kept our eyes out for deer. All clear last night.

After James’ basket ball game today, we were heading back up 22/3 into Wilmington. We were nearly in town and drove by a farm field on the right and some apartments to the left. The next thing I knew was that we had a deer bouncing off the hood and driver’s side of my truck!

James and I were a bit shaken at how fast she appeared and we hit her. We pulled off the road and folks stopped to make sure we were okay. We were. The deer was mortally wounded after nearly hitting the truck in the front/middle. We called 911 to report the crash and to get someone to put the deer down. A sheriff got to the seen and the deer expired while we were waiting.

Seems that location is a popular travel zone for deer. Since there are so many of my in-laws who like deer meat, we had the police tag the deer for us and I spent the next few hours cleaning and hauling the deer to the processor. Sadly, the fact that gun season was a week ago, most meat processors are closed early on Saturdays.

As for the Jimmy, since it is a 1998 model, and nearly every bit of front-end has been damaged, I expect they will total it. We’ll see. It drives fine, but obviously has some fan shroud damage as it makes a painful sound on take off. Otherwise, it is fine (except for the metal). Such a good truck. Sniff.