Just had a look at this post and immediately thought about this lot that happened to me many, many moons ago. Got nothing to do with squirrels at all, as we dont have them in Australia, but we got plenty of other much larger things, to annoy you out on the highway.
If the 'mods' think that this is inaproppriate, then I shall remove it.
For those that are any way vaugley interested in this lot, then go check out on a map just where these places mentioned are.
Been on a couple of weeks rest and recreation, aka, holidays, it was a bit of a quite time, so the company, Brambles, decided to give a few of us some time off with the family, now when I get back to work, I can't see my truck in the yard to go load all my gear into it.
Up to the front counter at the office and I’m told that another driver, Gary Covey, has got my truck and he's on his way back from Jabaru, I'm told to hop into Wes Wright’s Road Boss, who's now on holidays, go grab a particular trailer and go and load it at a certain place. Then, take off to Tambo and wait for Gary, who’s heading south to arrive at Tambo, I'm to do the change over with the trucks and keep going north to Jabaru, ditch the load and head straight back to Brisbane for another load.
OK, get to Tambo early the next morning, no sign of Gary with my truck, so I have breaky and then Gary rolls south into town. Talking to Gary before we swap horses, he informs me that he just hit a pig a couple of hours ago.
Yeh, where, -- as you don't want to run over a dead one ever, as the mess is twice as bad. Gary informs me that it's on top of the rise, 3 kays east of Ilfracombe. It did stink a tad when I was under hooking up the trailer leads, and this stink is from a freshly killed one.
Do the change over and head off north, sure enough, 3 kays before Ilfracombe, there's the pig, dead centre of the east bound lane, so I pass it on the westbound lane . Eventually I get unloaded and head back home.
Lo and behold that damned pig was still right where it got hit, only thing now after about a week, it's starting to inflate, you could see where road trains had gone to the north and into the gravel to miss this stinkin' porker, so some must have even gone over onto the wrong side of the road to miss it as well, NO BODY, had even come close to hitting this plonker.
It was now very "ripe" and was sporting a big bunch of blow flies, that were like a mini cloud hanging over this stinkin' rotten corpse. Anyway, I just keep heading south and swing around the corner and into Tambo.
There's Wes's truck parked up pointing north with a loaded trailer, I pull up to have a chat with him and it wasn’t Wes, but Gary, who's laying across the seats, crook as a sick dog, he'd already worked it out with Brisbane, for me to do the change over right here, so Gary could get back home.
Do the change over again with the trailers, and head north again, coming towards Ilfracombe and that pig is still where it was, and no one's touched it yet. Of up to Jabaru and unload and head for home again.
Coming out of Longreach a taxi slips in behind me, it's got the driver and three passengers with broad rimmed hats on, the passengers are a railway crew, heading out for a change over, with another railway crew down the line somewhere.
This taxi stays real close to me and no matter what I do, he aint coming around me, each time I would give a quick blink on the right hand indicator and move to the left, all he would do is just move the car out to the centre of the road, with the right hand wheels rolling along the white lines. Must have done this about a dozen times and about now, I'm getting a bit peeved of with this turkey, just sitting back there on me dot, for all this time.
Get up to Ilfrancombe and slow down in the main street, it's nice and wide and he could have passed me easily, but nope, he stays tucked in right behind me still.
Ah-ha, click, that little bulb lights up in the grey matter, I look up the road and there's the pig, by now after a couple of weeks in the hot Qld sun, it's blown up like a balloon and it's ready to go "pop", so try to get this turkey to pass again, no way, he's staying put, he still just moved out to the line and kept following me.
Chuckle, chuckle, surprise, surprise is about to happen to this joker, eh.
Get up close to the pig and I give the R/H blinker a quick blip , pull left into the dirt and look in the mirror. Yep, this turkey is now staddling the white line with his R/H wheels, I kick up a cloud of dust so he don't know what's in store for him, which then puts his left hand wheels directly in line with the pig.
Look real close at the mirror as I pull it back on the road and yep, the car does a little jig as he hits this plonker. The car only managed to go another fifty or so yards, when it screams to stop over to the left of the road in a great big cloud of dust, four doors are then flung open and four bodies are running away from the taxi, as fast as they can.
By the time I had crested the next rise, which was about another 3 kays down the road, the taxi was still sitting there, I could just image the words of wisdom these turkeys were saying, like, " you get in and drive it", "nah, ***-off, you get in it ".
Me, I was still laughing about this little effort all the way back to Brisbane.