Quick catch-up... I had my weekend off of work right over Halloween weekend. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday without work. Ben also had the weekend off. Talk of a Halloween road trip hung in the air. Presto! WHAMO! Ben switches around a couple of work days and we both have a 4 day weekend. Where to go? Google search for Halloween destinations/road trips. #1 Las Vegas... completely booked up. #2 Salem, Mass.... too creepy. #3 New Orleans... seafood, warm weather, and a mere 16 hours? Sold. Ben did a quick Priceline for a hotel near Bourbon Street, and made reservations for a rental car for like 50 bucks. Winning.
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Friday afternoon, I left work a couple hours early and picked up Ben from work. Then we headed to the MKE airport to pick up the rental car. Then we got lost in the road construction. Then we dropped off our car at Ken & Rachel's house, got lost in road construction again, and
then we were on our way south.
We were both on a bit of a sugar high (
hello road trip junk food) and chit chatty for the first 6 hours or so. Near Effingham, IL we stopped and filled up with gas. After a few minutes we were back on the road, chit chatting again about what we wanted to do once we got to NOLA. It was 11:30pm and the night was ours... the road was ours... we were having a grand ole time on our wonderful little trip together...
From the left enters what I can only assume was a highly trained, nazi military ninja deer. There was no time to stop, and no time for the brakes to really make much of a difference. We were dealing with a suicide mission. I made a high pitched scream like a girl. Ben made a verbal blue streak like a man. The deer made a mess of the little red 2011 Nissan Versa.
After the hit, both airbags deployed. There was smoke everywhere and the engine was no longer running. The hood was crinkled like holiday wrapping paper. The passenger side windshield was cracked and spiderwebbing. The passenger side door would not open, and the passenger side rear view mirror was MIA. Liquids were dripping out of the poor little car, and we had no idea where we were. And in true stealth ninja style, the deer was
no where to be found.
We figured out where we were thanks to our Tom-Tom GPS. Ben was on the phone with Triple A, telling them that we were near "effing....effing.......effing...." which only made Triple A think that he was swearing at them. Our phones were dying, but luckily we got calls placed to the IL state police department and Triple A.
Then we waited. I was shaking and freezing. It was almost midnight, and the highway was eerily quiet. There were some blinking construction lights a quarter mile or so behind us, and the semis and cars that passed were creeping me out. The idea that I would be the next unfortunate character behind the next Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Hitcher movie was a
very real possibility in my mind.
Nearly an hour later, IL State Trooper Adam B showed up.
What a cute sight for sore eyes! He walked around and took a look at the crinkled car and told us that this was the worst he had ever seen from hitting a deer. He was amazed that I only had a couple scratches and that Ben was completely unharmed. Then he tried to make some small talk by telling us that the Cardinals had just won the World Series. We told him that we were from Milwaukee.... he laughed and said that he wasn't trying to be an ass, or make our night any worse by rubbing our noses in that news. About this time, hill billy Blaine the tow truck driver showed up. Ben went and talked to him, while I got to sit in the front seat of the police car and warm up. About fifteen minutes later the car was loaded up and we were ready to be towed to St. Louis.
Two and a half hours later, I had only understood a handful of what Blaine was saying. He had an extremely thick accent. I understood tidbits about "really creaming dat deer," and how he didn't
really know where we were driving to. Apparently Ben was only understanding bits and pieces as well.... but he's a real team player, and nodded and smiled and made generic comments like a champ.
We got to the rental car lot near the St. Louis airport, dropped the car, waved goodbye to Blaine, and went inside to get a new car. Bernard, the very crabby old man behind the counter, was
zero fun. I'm positive that he wished we had died in the car accident. He started the rental process and came up with the same car, 3 days, right under $600. Obviously this didn't seem right/economical to us on any level. Bernard shuffled around behind the desk muttering and then told us that he didn't really know what to do or have the permission to do what he thought he should do... but a manager would be there around 6am and we were welcomed to wait. It was currently
4:30am.
So we went back to the totaled car and grabbed a few of our things. Then we sat in the waiting lounge of the Hertz rental car building and watched Cardinal fan after Cardinal fan after Cardinal fan come in exclaiming that they had yet to go to sleep.
Uugh.
Come 6:30am, the manager walks in the door. By this time, angry old Bernard had gone home and the woman behind the counter only knew that we needed to speak to the man in charge. Ben stood up and got out "Hi, we hit a deer..." and the manager yelled "oh my gosh!! is that the messed up Nissan out on the lot?! HOLY COW! are you guys alright?! do you have your paperwork... let me get you a car. I don't know WHY he made you wait here, anyone could have done this!! Here, I upgraded you to a small SUV under the same price you had rented the car for in Milwaukee. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh I am sooo sorry! I am so sorry you had to sit here all night!!" And literally within 3 minutes of that glorious man walking through the door, we had the keys to a new car, a larger car with heated seats and Sirius radio. What a saint.
So we continued on our adventure. We left St. Louis and the sad little Nissan behind us. Within 30 minutes, the adrenaline from the night was completely worn off. We pulled over with the intent to sleep for an hour or so, and woke up over two hours later. The rest of the ride to NOLA was pretty uneventful, and we made it safely to our hotel late that afternoon. Once there, we slept some more...
Fast forward to going out that night, seeing all the crazy costumes and getting tasty
hand grenades. The rest of our trip consisted of losing money at the Harrah's casino but getting "free" drinks there, people watching
(personal fave in a non-creeper way), sporting our Halloween costumes
(Ben = Top Gun pilot Brit = sailor), entering a costume contest, eating fresh seafood (
Ben bit into an oyster and spit out THREE pearls(!?!?)), watching the Halloween costume parade, walking along the bay side, and general spending time in the sun.
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| listening to live jazz :) |
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| fresh beignets |
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| sailor brit |
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| top gun ben |
Then we drove back home to Milwaukee.... rolled in around 4am.......and headed out for work at 9am.
What an adventure
xoxo, b
