We've Seen Some Strange Things Since Moving out Into the Country!

It's been a year since we moved from the suburbs and out into the country, and for the most part it's been a wonderful experience. But we've had quite a few strange things happen to us in this short time. We've seen some things you just never see in the suburbs. In this article, I will tell you about the very first strange thing that happened to us.

Within two weeks of moving out into the country, we decided to take a short drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway to view the beautiful scenery. It's not too far from our house, so it seemed like a pretty safe adventure. We piled our 4 kids into the van and headed down the road. Once on the Parkway, we drove a few miles in one direction and then turned around and drove a few miles in the other. It would be getting dark soon, so we didn't have much time. It was beautiful all right, even more than we had expected. We had a lovely drive; it was very pleasant and relaxing. We stopped at one of the overlooks to take in the view, took a few family pictures and decided this was one of the most beautiful places we had ever seen.

As the sun continued to recede, we chose to end our adventure and return home. We turned the van around again and started to head back. I forgot to mention, I was the lucky one driving this expedition. Just a mile from our exit off of the Parkway, our happy adventure was about to turn into something really strange. About 200 feet in front of us, standing on the left side of the road, was a beautiful, young, white tailed deer. It's almost as though we saw each other at the very same time. I imagine the look on my face was pretty similar to his, completely startled.

I began to slow the car down, not knowing for sure what to do, since I've been a city girl all my life. But within a split second, that deer was running right towards us! Since slowing down hadn't worked, I tried to drive to the far right side of the road to avoid hitting him. But the deer would not cooperate. Instead of being able to go around him, that stupid dear kept running straight for the front side of our van, forcing me to drive further and further off the side of the road. Finally, I was about to hit a tree and had no choice but to stop the van.

When I hit the brakes, trying not to hit them hard enough to release the air bags, the deer ran smack into the front left corner of the van, hoppled over the hood and jumped off the front end. For just a moment, he stood there quietly, probably stunned by the impact of hitting our van. (Although this is a continued argument between my husband and I; he says I ran into the deer, and I still say the deer ran into us!) We were all pretty stunned ourselves.

Before I could even check to see if everyone was okay, the deer had already run off into the woods, taking with him our hopes and prayers that he was not injured, but still alive and well. After getting over the initial shock of what had just happened, I looked up at the front of the van and realized we were just a few feet away from a row of trees. The branches were up against the windshield, almost acting as barrier between the trees and us. Looking back on it now, I believe that when the branches hit the windshield, I finally gave in to the chase and stopped the van instantly. The craziest thing about this strange event is that I almost wrecked the van trying to avoid hitting a deer! Fortunately for me, the van was still intact and everyone was okay. We suffered only a small crack in the headlight, which is nothing compared to the damage that could have been done. Needless to say, the drive home was not quite as pleasant as the beginning of our little adventure.

For those of you who don't know this already, deer are evidently attracted to headlights. This is why the deer was literally chasing down the front of our van that night, as I tried to drive away from him. I've since learned that the best thing to do is turn your headlights off, if at all possible. If you can do this, even for just a moment, the deer may be able to look away and run back into the woods.