OSA Chit Chat Thread

[clintbailey]

Getting closer to my happy place...

And here's one for @TerryMiller I got while driving by Capulin earlier

 

[dennishoddy]

Getting closer to my happy place...
View attachment 485204
And here's one for @TerryMiller I got while driving by Capulin earlier
View attachment 485206

Did you drive into the crater?

 

[clintbailey]

Did you drive into the crater?

Not this time

 

[TerryMiller]

Did you drive into the crater?

One doesn't drive "into" the crater, but can drive to a parking lot at the edge.

If one plans on going, check the website for Capulin Volcano National Monument to see if one's vehicle is allowed to go. No vehicles over 26 feet long and no trailers are allowed up on the mountain. There are parking spaces at the visitor center where one can leave trailers.

 

[TerryMiller]

Northwest of Gainesville, TX was an Army training base and POW camp called Camp Howze. We stumbled upon it while working North Texas 2 years ago and first saw concrete "pillars" with metal pieces sticking up. Those turned out to be foundation pillars for buildings, and a few of those can be seen to the right of the "structure base" in the photo.

 

[D'Artagnan]

Wife hit a deer last week, not surprising here in Southern Oklahoma. Everyone has hit deer at least once. I bought her a new Nissan Rogue Platinum last year. The deer she hit was a very small doe and it hit the passenger side doing damage to the grill, right lights, plastic bumper guard and other small things. Right fender was pushed back a bit but not even the air bags deployed.
Checked on the estimates by the adjuster a few days ago and not being finished yet, the repair was over 10K with more to come. Remember it didn't even deploy the air bag otherwise they just total when it does, but the damage was fairly minimal. Best guess will be north of 11K to fix. That's why insurance is so high and cars cost so much. Criminal up price of parts. Thank God for insurance.
Between the two of us, over the years, we've hit 6 deer between us (now 7).
The price they charge for factory parts is criminal.

 

[D'Artagnan]

Also, if you get a chance to go to Ruby Falls (I went years ago when I had a conference there) it's the coolest thing you'll see. Plus they show you what absolute darkness is (or they did back then).
Def on a bucket list for everyone as it's in the states and very top shelf

 

[retrieverman]

Wife hit a deer last week, not surprising here in Southern Oklahoma. Everyone has hit deer at least once. I bought her a new Nissan Rogue Platinum last year. The deer she hit was a very small doe and it hit the passenger side doing damage to the grill, right lights, plastic bumper guard and other small things. Right fender was pushed back a bit but not even the air bags deployed.
Checked on the estimates by the adjuster a few days ago and not being finished yet, the repair was over 10K with more to come. Remember it didn't even deploy the air bag otherwise they just total when it does, but the damage was fairly minimal. Best guess will be north of 11K to fix. That's why insurance is so high and cars cost so much. Criminal up price of parts. Thank God for insurance.
Between the two of us, over the years, we've hit 6 deer between us (now 7).
The price they charge for factory parts is criminal.

I agree. My wife hit a deer a couple years ago in a Honda CRV, and it only did minor cosmetic damage and cost almost $7k to fix.

 

[TerryMiller]

Wife hit a deer last week, not surprising here in Southern Oklahoma. Everyone has hit deer at least once. I bought her a new Nissan Rogue Platinum last year. The deer she hit was a very small doe and it hit the passenger side doing damage to the grill, right lights, plastic bumper guard and other small things. Right fender was pushed back a bit but not even the air bags deployed.
Checked on the estimates by the adjuster a few days ago and not being finished yet, the repair was over 10K with more to come. Remember it didn't even deploy the air bag otherwise they just total when it does, but the damage was fairly minimal. Best guess will be north of 11K to fix. That's why insurance is so high and cars cost so much. Criminal up price of parts. Thank God for insurance.
Between the two of us, over the years, we've hit 6 deer between us (now 7).
The price they charge for factory parts is criminal.

With regards to that in bold letters above. I guess I'm not "everyone" because I have never hit one in 64 years of licensed driving, including a number of years as a professional driver.

Now, in all honesty, I almost hit one several years ago. Wee early morning hours, we were leaving Kansas on Highway 50 and going into Colorado. I had just dimmed my lights for an oncoming vehicle and looked up to see three deer (I swear they were the size of Elk) crossing the road. The lead one was in the right hand lane, the second was in the middle of the road, and the third was in the left hand lane.

I figured at the time that I was definitely going to get one of them, but the lead deer leaped off into the ditch, the middle one turned back, which gave me a space between them to swerve and go through it. No bumps, and when we got to a destination, I checked both sides of the front of our Expedition and there wasn't even evidence that I had even brushed one of them.

 

[dennishoddy]

Wife hit a deer last week, not surprising here in Southern Oklahoma. Everyone has hit deer at least once. I bought her a new Nissan Rogue Platinum last year. The deer she hit was a very small doe and it hit the passenger side doing damage to the grill, right lights, plastic bumper guard and other small things. Right fender was pushed back a bit but not even the air bags deployed.
Checked on the estimates by the adjuster a few days ago and not being finished yet, the repair was over 10K with more to come. Remember it didn't even deploy the air bag otherwise they just total when it does, but the damage was fairly minimal. Best guess will be north of 11K to fix. That's why insurance is so high and cars cost so much. Criminal up price of parts. Thank God for insurance.
Between the two of us, over the years, we've hit 6 deer between us (now 7).
The price they charge for factory parts is criminal.

As I've been told, air bags falling are very specific with the sensors built in that determine when the pressure of the crash is enough to deploy them.
My wife has hit two deer. One totaling the vehicle and the other a small ding that I fixed with a new headlight bezel.
The serious one was just North of our home. It ran out, she tried to evade which is a serious mistake.
Between the attempt to evade and the point of impact, it spun the vehicle around in the road, putting her in the ditch on the opposite side of the road, facing the opposite direction she was traveling.
She called me crying while I was at work. Told the boss see-ya when I get back and bailed. Thankfully no LEO in my travel path.
She was uninjured, just distraught more over hitting the deer and watching it on the side of the road struggling.
During my trip, two guys showed up in their pickup, saw the deer and my wife in the ditch. Jumped out, cut the throat of the deer, loaded it up and left without even checking on my wife. I saw the blood spot when arriving.
She was more traumatized by watching those guys than from the actual wreck.
I should be the poster child of the insurance companies considering the number of deer that I've prevented from causing automobile accidents, but that's another story.