So I'm going back from Miller's Ale House around 2AM (Levittown, Long Island) and getting onto the 2-lane Wantagh highway. Going down the strip on the right lane, I see a black little figure walking across the left lane towards the right. I realize it's a raccoon and figure I had 3 options: brake really really hard, brake hard and swing to the left lane, or just keep going down the right lane hoping it'll act like a squirrel and just stop and run off the opposite direction. I went with option #3 and shortly after regretted. I hear a nice loud :blunk:, then I was like
, then I hear a scrapping sound under my car so I was like
. I pull over thinking it's just the raccoon probably stuck under my car but there was no raccoon. I just see my fender liner ripped out and dragging under my wheel so I pull it out and throw it in the trunk. Then my friend that was riding with me let out a big
. Then I saw it, and I was like
.
So I was thinking m*****f******little****, now I need a new bumper. I just drove home and stared at it over 2 stoges. Since the fender liner was already ripped out, I just reached in and tried very hard to pop the bumper ding back out. What do you know, it worked. Minor paint flex that's not visible from more than a foot away but there's a 6inch crack on the side and the plastic under is bent out of shape. So onto my boy's shop for some JB Weld and...done.
Going to be using some Dr. ColorChip for the crack cover up and rockchips I got from all the construction that's been going on the highways.
I went back to Miller's again the next night. On the way back, I slowed down to make sure that lil prick was dead. Saw it motionless all the way on the left shoulder. My friend tells me it didn't react because it didn't have the instincts or field of vision like squirrels do, so chances are it may not have even seen me coming. Whatever, I'm glad it's dead.