Let's just say I got the body shop estimate today, and its approx $1300.00 
Last Saturday morning, I'm driving to a car show about 60 miles from where I live. About 1/2 way there I'm cruising on the beltline thru the thriving liberal metropolis known as Madison, WI. As our seasons here go winter, spring, road construction, and fall, I find myself driving on a lane shift. As I get near the end of the shift, and the lanes get back to normal, I notice that the cougar driving the mini van in the center lane (talking on her cell) has decided that she will not look in her mirrors before taking my lane. As she's about 2 inches from taking a piece of my front bumper, I give her the horn and the finger simultaniousley. I get out of the construction, pass her, give her a dirty look, and she sticks her tounge out at me!! WTF?! So I call her a few choice names I would never say in front of my mother and carry on my way.
Now I'm on I90 going south about 20 miles from where I gotta be. Just cruising with the windows down and no cares in the world, I see a semi tractor wants to merge in front of me to pass a vehicle. Since I grew up in the trucking industry, I always check out everyone's equipment... Well this dude's equipment was pure ****. But I did the neighborly thing and let him in instead of my usual speed up and make him get behind me. He merges in and the next thing hear is a loud BOOM like a shotgun went off in my passenger seat. Here the trucker had blown a recap on his trailer. Now knowing the rules of the road, I was back far enough that I could see his mirrors, but it didn't matter. I got caught in a hailstorm of heavy rubber chunks coming at me!! The crap is bouncing off my GN and no matter which way I swerved I was hitting it. My main concern was what came next - the retread coming out from under the trailer. The rear tires on the trailer ran over it and propelled this thing head on for my windshield. I took the ditch stage left at 70 mph, two tires on the grass two on the gravel to avoid this thing. I didn't lift off the pedal once. My buddy and fellow TB member vipermuscle was in the right lane and took the right ditch with his T/A to miss it. To say I was pissed is an understatement.
The trucker pulled over, and we pulled over about a 1/2 mile down to survey the damage. My passenger side air dam is all scratched up, my bumper filler is all beat to hell on the drivers' side, and I got some deep scratches on the header panel, hood, and A-pillars. Definately could've been a lot worse. The trucker limped his rig up the road to us, and even though I know he can't control the blowout I was still pissed at him. While I was busy writing down every number on his truck and trailer, vipermuscle gave the rig a once over and found all the tires were junk. So needless to say I called the WI State Patrol because now I wanted an accident report. The trooper showed up and took down all the info. He gave me a report to fill out because he couldn't physically determine the amount of damage (WI has a $1000 rule for accident reports). I am to call the trooper and get the trucking company's insurance info when he returns to duty on Weds. There is no way in hell I'm going to pay for this, and my insurance company agrees. For what I pay in rates, they can fight it out for me.
This is whats ironic about the whole deal. I was headed to a really nice car show put on by a church. I'm not very biblical, but when I got home I started replaying the scenario in my head. With what I did behind the wheel most people would've wrecked and/or died. Saturday, Jesus was my co-pilot. After I got home, I thanked him and I thanked my GN. It could've turned out a lot worse than it did, and I'm glad I'm here to tell the story without a scratch on me. I got passed by a ton of people also going to the show, so when I rolled in I had to answer questions to the third degree.
On top of all that, my damaged car won a first place trophy I spent the day with my best friend and the best damn girl God ever put on this earth.
To quote Bret Micheals, "Give me something to believe in."
Now I quote the Monkees - "I'm a believer!"
Last Saturday morning, I'm driving to a car show about 60 miles from where I live. About 1/2 way there I'm cruising on the beltline thru the thriving liberal metropolis known as Madison, WI. As our seasons here go winter, spring, road construction, and fall, I find myself driving on a lane shift. As I get near the end of the shift, and the lanes get back to normal, I notice that the cougar driving the mini van in the center lane (talking on her cell) has decided that she will not look in her mirrors before taking my lane. As she's about 2 inches from taking a piece of my front bumper, I give her the horn and the finger simultaniousley. I get out of the construction, pass her, give her a dirty look, and she sticks her tounge out at me!! WTF?! So I call her a few choice names I would never say in front of my mother and carry on my way.
Now I'm on I90 going south about 20 miles from where I gotta be. Just cruising with the windows down and no cares in the world, I see a semi tractor wants to merge in front of me to pass a vehicle. Since I grew up in the trucking industry, I always check out everyone's equipment... Well this dude's equipment was pure ****. But I did the neighborly thing and let him in instead of my usual speed up and make him get behind me. He merges in and the next thing hear is a loud BOOM like a shotgun went off in my passenger seat. Here the trucker had blown a recap on his trailer. Now knowing the rules of the road, I was back far enough that I could see his mirrors, but it didn't matter. I got caught in a hailstorm of heavy rubber chunks coming at me!! The crap is bouncing off my GN and no matter which way I swerved I was hitting it. My main concern was what came next - the retread coming out from under the trailer. The rear tires on the trailer ran over it and propelled this thing head on for my windshield. I took the ditch stage left at 70 mph, two tires on the grass two on the gravel to avoid this thing. I didn't lift off the pedal once. My buddy and fellow TB member vipermuscle was in the right lane and took the right ditch with his T/A to miss it. To say I was pissed is an understatement.
The trucker pulled over, and we pulled over about a 1/2 mile down to survey the damage. My passenger side air dam is all scratched up, my bumper filler is all beat to hell on the drivers' side, and I got some deep scratches on the header panel, hood, and A-pillars. Definately could've been a lot worse. The trucker limped his rig up the road to us, and even though I know he can't control the blowout I was still pissed at him. While I was busy writing down every number on his truck and trailer, vipermuscle gave the rig a once over and found all the tires were junk. So needless to say I called the WI State Patrol because now I wanted an accident report. The trooper showed up and took down all the info. He gave me a report to fill out because he couldn't physically determine the amount of damage (WI has a $1000 rule for accident reports). I am to call the trooper and get the trucking company's insurance info when he returns to duty on Weds. There is no way in hell I'm going to pay for this, and my insurance company agrees. For what I pay in rates, they can fight it out for me.
This is whats ironic about the whole deal. I was headed to a really nice car show put on by a church. I'm not very biblical, but when I got home I started replaying the scenario in my head. With what I did behind the wheel most people would've wrecked and/or died. Saturday, Jesus was my co-pilot. After I got home, I thanked him and I thanked my GN. It could've turned out a lot worse than it did, and I'm glad I'm here to tell the story without a scratch on me. I got passed by a ton of people also going to the show, so when I rolled in I had to answer questions to the third degree.
On top of all that, my damaged car won a first place trophy
I spent the day with my best friend and the best damn girl God ever put on this earth. To quote Bret Micheals, "Give me something to believe in."
Now I quote the Monkees - "I'm a believer!"
