Pictures coming soon... Work in progress...

I've driven a few hundred thousand miles so far and before owning my Sky I've never had any encounters with wildlife other than the little flying guys that end up smashed on the front end.

So lets start with March '08 - Driving through the Presidio Base on my way home from the Golden Gate Bridge late Sunday night I have to test out the brakes when a raccoon comes running out of the shadows. Ok, so close call, no one or thing was hurt. Not a minute later I'm coming up to a stop sign and notice something moving on the ground by the painted 'STOP'; It was a mouse going back and forth from the T to the P on the painted sign. I slow down figuring I'd just go over the thing and right as I get there I see nothing but wings. A HUGE eagle comes out of the shadows from above and plunges right in front of me trying to snatch the mouse. Just barely avoiding injuring the eagle after another brake check the bird takes off. Now this all happens in a matter of seconds so by now I'm over the mouse still wide eyed from the eagle sighting and now taking off in 1st gear. I look into the rear view and the eagle once again swooped down but this time got the mouse... Crazy

May 18 '08 - Early Sunday morning checking out one of my new favorite driving roads in the middle of nowhere (no kidding - see Favorite driving roads group) I run over a Jack Rabbit. I didn't kill it and it wasn't even injured...well maybe induced some ear whiplash but that’s about it.

So this is an empty two lane road with great visibility and just before entering a fast left hand sweeper I see something dark pop up in the corner of my eye. I was going a bit fast so I didn't have time to react (just brace for impact and wait for the inevitable loud crack of broken plastic) but it never came. Instead I looked in the left rear view and saw the rabbit hopping along across the Hwy.

Then, about 20 miles later (now going a bit faster) a bird on the side of the road takes off as I approach. No big deal as they typically pull right out of the way but not this one. It starts to go right but then decides to test fate and pulls a hard left right into my sights. I try to avoid it with an awesome lane change drifting action (traction and stability off; Only way to drive!) but the front right corner taps the bird. After looking into the rear view I see it spinning around on its way back to the ground. I don't think I killed it cause on my return trip it was no longer there.

So after finishing the 400 mile trek my brother and I check out the fenders for any signs of impact. Aside from the car being dirtier than it ever has been; no dents, dings or scratches were found.

Although I must note that the rims tend to suck air into the brakes… which is cool, don’t get me wrong. But I had about a 100 files glued to the inside of my rims. Now that was just weird.

The clean spot on the muffler is from the rabbit's head

Some of the bugs in the rims

I’ll be back with some more stories I’m sure.