Deer Vs. Pathfinder/ Canoeing

Yesterday was canoe day.  Keith goes all the time, but this time, he talked me into going.  So, Etta's grandmomma excitedly agreed to watch little E while Keith and I went out to Kingston Springs to float the Harpeth River.   I was pretty grumbly about having to wake up early on the weekend (Keith usually gets up with Etta on Sat/Sun so I can sleep in).  But after I got moving, I was beginning to look forward to the day on the river.  We got ourselves loaded up in my Pathfinder and headed north to drop Etta off.  Well, just past the Moore's Ln exit a big deer jumped out in front of us.  We saw it coming, but much too late.  Keith was driving.  The deer stumbled into our lane (second lane over from right). Keith let off the gas, held the car straight (with a mug of coffee in his right hand) and SHUT HIS EYES.  What?!?!  Well, I saw the whole thing happen because I kept my eyes open.  You don't need all the details of the end of this poor animal's life, but I will say that there was a loud "BOOM" sound, and Keith's coffee was all over.  We were so lucky that we were in my Pathfinder and not Keith's Sentra.  That deer WOULD have come through our windshield.  After the hit, we could tell the car was damaged, but still driving.  So, Keith slowed down and we made our way to the next exit, Concord Rd, to asses the damage.  We narrowly missed a squirrel, believe it or not!  I kept saying, "my car's wrecked".  I think I said it about five times.  Then, as I stepped out of the car, I said, "OH MY GOOOOD!"  This is what we saw:

So, Keith ripped the bumper off (and some other things that were hanging- like the right blinker), and we were on our way again. 

I placed the call to State Farm today and am currently awaiting the return call from the Claim Rep.

So, we dropped Etta off quickly, and went out to the river.  We had a great time! 

The trees on the banks of the river told the story of that great flood 6 weeks ago.  The force of that rushing water was intense. 

We were on the river for 6 hours (about 2 hours longer than I wanted to be) and I didn't get too much sun.  I slathered on the sunblock before we left, but after a few swims and some sweat and just time, the effectiveness began to wear off.  We saw a couple of snakes swimming toward us (ack!) and some turtles sunbathing on downed trees.  Keith caught a couple of (little) fish and we saw some teeny tiny frogs.  When I say teeny tiny, I mean teeeeeeeeeny tiny!  We thought they were bugs until we looked closer.  Keith didn't flip me this time.  ;)  ;)  We actually made a good team navigating the tighter spots.  A father/daughter team in our group weren't as lucky.  They flipped twice.  Their first flip was pretty scary, but everyone was fine.  Anyway, here are a *few* pictures!