I guess I gotta train those adults better…they done went off on a trip to Youngstown, Ohio to listen to the Organ Symphony without me and Gunther. They headed out early Sunday morning Sep 17 and drove about 300 or so miles to get there. The concert was a rededication of the organ which just underwent a $2 million restoration (more than the entire auditorium cost originally back in the 1920’s) after not having been heard for almost 40 years. The concert was really nice from what they tell me (actually it was great Neil says)…of course I’m just takin’ their word for it since they ran off and left me and Gunther on the mantle. I guess I’ll have to cut them some slack since we haven’t been traveling with them in the past but they better not let it happen again.

After the concert they looked at the GPS and decided to take another road back instead of paying the Pennsylvania Turnpike toll. They were doing real good until right after they stopped for dinner at the Golden Arches. Shortly after they got back on the road which was US-422, a pretty busy and major highway with some divided sections and some two lane sections; a deer ran across the road in front of them. Neil managed to hit the brakes (at least got his foot on the pedal) before the impact. Luckily the now-deceased deer caught the edge of the hood and peeled it up over the windshield while catapulting himself over the car…otherwise he would have hit the windshield and probably ended up in the front seat with them. The impact wasn’t enough to trigger the airbags but considering that 10,000 people (according to the Googles) end up in the hospital every year due to deer/vehicle impacts I’m glad that the humans came through unscratched. Not so much for Neil’s Mazda as you can see…over $6100 to get fixed and who knows when it will be ready. You can fix cars a lot easier than humans though so I’m glad they came through OK.

After the crash Neil pulled over to the side of the road long enough to pull the hood back down then they limped about 1/2 mile to the Exxon station in Shelocta, PA. It’s a wide spot in the road on the east side of Pittsburgh right before you get to Indiana, PA. After making sure they were OK they called the insurance company who arranged a tow to Johnstown, PA (yeah, the flood Johnstown) and they got to a hotel there about 2330 for the night. Next morning they got a rental from Enterprise and got home without further incident. Neil got a call yesterday afternoon with the $6100 cost and the body shop will be fixing it as soon as they can I guess. It’s only the front end and the windshield which was actually hit by the hood and not the deer; but hitting a 200 pound deer at 50 miles an hour doesn’t do the sheet metal much good at all.