"One Long Day"
One Long Day Published-10-6-2010 Cass Lake Times
By Allan Olson
Everyone has those days that they maybe shouldn’t have gotten out of bed – I think mine was Sunday.
We left Bemidji at 6:45 a.m., on our way to International Falls to get some minor service work done on my washer and dryer at my brother’s store. Then the fun began.
We were just past the fairgrounds when the first challenge appeared in my path as a doe and fawn decided they wanted to cross in front of me. Brakes firmly applied, I narrowly escaped any damage to the vehicle or the deer.
“We almost hit a baby deer,” my daughter Abigail said, after I explained the sudden stop.
Since all was okay, we continued on our journey.
A short while later we arrived in Blackduck and stopped to grab something quick to eat. I come back to the van and, of course, I hear those ever-famous words every parent dreads when traveling with kids: “I gotta go potty,” Alivia said. Grudgingly, I take her into the building to take care of business.
Back on the road again, listening to some kid’s music, trying to keep them occupied on that, rather than fighting with siblings. First town of Funkley (yes, that is the actual name) cleared, and then roughly 10 miles down the road, it all went downhill.
I spotted it in the ditch to my left – it had horns and it was approaching quickly, on a collision course. I applied the brakes as firmly as I dared, but it wasn’t enough, as the buck hit the driver’s side bumper, came over the hood, up the windshield, onto the roof and down the opposite side of the van into the ditch.
I recall hearing the kids’ saying things like “whoa,” “cool,” “nice flip.” Even ten hours after the event, they were still talking about the “nice flip.”
I finished braking and pulled over to assess the damage. Crushed hood, driver’s headlamp, cracked bumper, dented hood and roof. Well, at least there were no injuries. I did not see any leaking fluids, and assumed the van was drivable.
The deer, on the other hand, did not fare so well. He was trying to escape into the woods with use of his front legs only.
I looked for my knife, no luck. I really didn’t want to go after it with just a knife anyway.
I flagged down the first motorist that came by. As luck would have it, they had just come back from a caribou hunt and had a rifle aboard. I borrowed it briefly and ended the poor critter’s suffering.
After getting back in the van, the questions poured forth.
“Why did the deer hit us?” Abigail asked.
“Whose fault is it?” Nikolai asked.
Those questions I tackled no problem.
“Why did you shoot it?” I was asked.
I explained as best as I could to the four children that it wasn’t right to let it lay there in pain.
Back on the road again, we narrowly missed hitting a Canada goose less than ten miles down the road.
“I gotta go potty really bad,” Marcus said a few more miles down the highway. Thankfully it was only a few miles to Bigfork. We made it there, and everyone took a break for a few minutes.
On the road again, we made it past Little Fork; less than 30 miles to go.
I glanced in my mirror. “Oh, $#@&!” I watched helplessly as my dryer tumbled down the highway. Okay, this day just went from bad to worse. I turned around, and we re-loaded and re-strapped the appliances down and took off – again.
We finally reached to our destination without any more hazards. However, by that time we no longer needed our dryer fixed, we needed it replaced. Our washer, well, we took it there and what we thought was wrong wasn’t, but what is wrong wasn’t wrong when it was used last Thursday. So it appears we are in the market for new appliances.
Our kids, at least, now have plenty of things to talk about. We met up with their cousins, and they informed them that “daddy shot a deer,” and that we hit it first with the van, narrowly missed hitting a baby deer, and our dryer fell off the trailer. All four of them told the tales in their own version, order, words – and all at the same time!
What a beginning to a new week.
Thanks for reading and have a great week. I hope mine certainly improves. As always we appreciate your comments and feedback so drop us a line at cltimes1@arvig.net.
By Allan Olson
Everyone has those days that they maybe shouldn’t have gotten out of bed – I think mine was Sunday.
We left Bemidji at 6:45 a.m., on our way to International Falls to get some minor service work done on my washer and dryer at my brother’s store. Then the fun began.
We were just past the fairgrounds when the first challenge appeared in my path as a doe and fawn decided they wanted to cross in front of me. Brakes firmly applied, I narrowly escaped any damage to the vehicle or the deer.
“We almost hit a baby deer,” my daughter Abigail said, after I explained the sudden stop.
Since all was okay, we continued on our journey.
A short while later we arrived in Blackduck and stopped to grab something quick to eat. I come back to the van and, of course, I hear those ever-famous words every parent dreads when traveling with kids: “I gotta go potty,” Alivia said. Grudgingly, I take her into the building to take care of business.
Back on the road again, listening to some kid’s music, trying to keep them occupied on that, rather than fighting with siblings. First town of Funkley (yes, that is the actual name) cleared, and then roughly 10 miles down the road, it all went downhill.
I spotted it in the ditch to my left – it had horns and it was approaching quickly, on a collision course. I applied the brakes as firmly as I dared, but it wasn’t enough, as the buck hit the driver’s side bumper, came over the hood, up the windshield, onto the roof and down the opposite side of the van into the ditch.
I recall hearing the kids’ saying things like “whoa,” “cool,” “nice flip.” Even ten hours after the event, they were still talking about the “nice flip.”
I finished braking and pulled over to assess the damage. Crushed hood, driver’s headlamp, cracked bumper, dented hood and roof. Well, at least there were no injuries. I did not see any leaking fluids, and assumed the van was drivable.
The deer, on the other hand, did not fare so well. He was trying to escape into the woods with use of his front legs only.
I looked for my knife, no luck. I really didn’t want to go after it with just a knife anyway.
I flagged down the first motorist that came by. As luck would have it, they had just come back from a caribou hunt and had a rifle aboard. I borrowed it briefly and ended the poor critter’s suffering.
After getting back in the van, the questions poured forth.
“Why did the deer hit us?” Abigail asked.
“Whose fault is it?” Nikolai asked.
Those questions I tackled no problem.
“Why did you shoot it?” I was asked.
I explained as best as I could to the four children that it wasn’t right to let it lay there in pain.
Back on the road again, we narrowly missed hitting a Canada goose less than ten miles down the road.
“I gotta go potty really bad,” Marcus said a few more miles down the highway. Thankfully it was only a few miles to Bigfork. We made it there, and everyone took a break for a few minutes.
On the road again, we made it past Little Fork; less than 30 miles to go.
I glanced in my mirror. “Oh, $#@&!” I watched helplessly as my dryer tumbled down the highway. Okay, this day just went from bad to worse. I turned around, and we re-loaded and re-strapped the appliances down and took off – again.
We finally reached to our destination without any more hazards. However, by that time we no longer needed our dryer fixed, we needed it replaced. Our washer, well, we took it there and what we thought was wrong wasn’t, but what is wrong wasn’t wrong when it was used last Thursday. So it appears we are in the market for new appliances.
Our kids, at least, now have plenty of things to talk about. We met up with their cousins, and they informed them that “daddy shot a deer,” and that we hit it first with the van, narrowly missed hitting a baby deer, and our dryer fell off the trailer. All four of them told the tales in their own version, order, words – and all at the same time!
What a beginning to a new week.
Thanks for reading and have a great week. I hope mine certainly improves. As always we appreciate your comments and feedback so drop us a line at cltimes1@arvig.net.
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