June 19, 2011
Headed home until a deer had other plans.. DAMN it is HOT!

Jamie and I were up and moving along at 5:30am. We knew that this last day would be hot and we wanted to make Megan’s game at 2PM. We were right on schedule. :rider:

The morning was a nice one. The cool vests were working and it was a nice way to start the morning. We were making good time.. THEN BAM! :eek2:

I see a blur on my left hand side, It looks brown. The next thing I know we feel a jolt and the bike pulls hard to the left. I keep the bike up and start to slow down. I look in the mirror to see the culprit stand up and jump the fence. It scampers off.

I get on the radio and tell Jamie that “I think we hit a deer”. I pull the bike over. My heart is racing! I asked to see if Jamie was alright. I think we were both stunned. We crawled off the bike to assess the damage and to collect our thoughts.

We looked over the bike and saw that the right side middle and lower fairing was damaged. Jamie then noticed that her bag was not longer attached to the bike. Looking down the road a 1/4 mile or so we saw it laying in the highway.

We started our way down there to get the bag when Leonard and Liz from the club rode by, they circled back to make sure we were ok. We explained what happened and they were nice enough to help us pic up what was left of Jamie’s wallet. All of her clothes were still in the bag liners, but she had placed her wallet on top of the bag. Yeeha Stephan and Miss Vicky rode up around this time as well. They jumped off and helped us locate as much of Jamie’s information as possible. We found her Drivers License and bank cards so life was good.

We actually had a spare bag that we had placed on top of the top case that carried our rain gear in it. This was a life saver as we could get Jamie’s clothes in there. The bag would not mount to the bike as the brackets were ripped off.

Nothing was leaking from the bike and it started right up. So we jumped on and decided to follow Yeeha for a few miles to make sure everything was okay. The bike ran great. my mind would not shut off. This could have ended much differently and much worse for the two of us. I was going 70 mph when I struck the deer. It could have gotten ugly if I had T-boned it. The good thing it was a glancing blow, only doing cosmetic damage. We were so lucky! At breakfast I took another pic of the damage.

The rest of the ride home was a good one.. well It was good that we could ride home and that we were both un harmed. The actual ride SUCKED! 250 miles of triple digit heat and winds blowing anywhere from 30-40 MPH. The winds were non stop. It was a hard ride home.

We pulled in the drive way and with 2700+ miles on the bike. We were home safe and sound. It was a grand trip and one we will not forget anytime soon.

We made it to Megan’s Championship game. the Tigers lost but they fought hard. Megan was named team MVP.

After the events from earlier in the day all we could do was count our blessings. Life is good!