More Boar

About 11:10pm, Tuesday, February 21, 2006- I leave Megan's house. Weather- foggy. Visibility- about 15 ft average. About 11:30pm, I cross the Chocolate Bayou bridge on FM 2004 en route to Clute. Average speed- 55 mph. Visibility is reduced to the point that I can no longer see beyond the hood (less than 10 ft). Speed varies between 50 and 55 mph. A giant black head appears on the hood of my truck. Blackout. A few seconds after impact, I come to. The cab is filled with smoke. The air bags have been deployed. Dead silence. I lean forward to see through the inside smoke. I can see about six inches of white road stripe to my right. I turn to drive off the road. The smoke literally chokes me. I struggle to roll down the window while trying to drive. Some hearing returns, and I reach over the airbag to turn down the still-blasting CD player. Once off the road completely, I open the door and fall out. I reach in and kill the engine. I get the flashlight from behind the seat. I lean on the truck, overwhelmed. It is at this moment that I realize I have just hit a huge animal. Concerned about a possible explosion, I back away from the truck. The cab is still billowing smoke. I assess the damage to the front of the truck. I pull out my phone and call dad. I have trouble describing the damage. I can't hear much because of a loud ringing in my ears. I tell him he'll need to drive out to where I am. I hang up. I see headlights. One second later, The headlights take a jump. I can hear the car slam back to the earth and swerve in its struggle for control. I turn on the flashlight and stand in the back of the truck. I try waving it at the next car, but I know they can't see me. They too hit the heap of meat. This car almost runs completely off the road after jumping it. I call Megan. She gives me the Lake Jackson PD's #, and I am redirected twice (County, and then Dispatch). After hanging up, I decide to try and pull forward and farther off the road. Every car that hits the kill almost runs off the road. It makes an unbelievably loud noise. The engine starts. I pull away from the road and stop the engine again. About forty minutes after impact, dad shows up. Another forty minutes and a state trooper shows up. His headlights reveal a bloody black heap split in half. The animal appeared to be about the size of a small cow. Apparently I'd seen most of it because at the moment I saw it, the truck was actually tilting forward. By 12:30am, one half of the animal had made it's way to the other lane, causing problems for both directions of traffic now. The ringing in my ears went away after about an hour. The gears on the truck were messed up, and the steering wheel was messed up for awhile. I was able to drive it home slowly but had to keep both windows down to let the smoke out. It was a cold, long drive home. Once in the driveway, I put it in Park and it started rolling backward. I shoved down the emergency brake. Neutral actually became switched with Park. The next day, 2nd would become Park. All of the gears are still messed up. The fan housing is cracked (I ripped half of it off because the fan was hitting it). I had to take the entire front bumper and grille off also. I was a little sore the next morning, but at the moment of impact I didn't even come off of the seat thanks to the seatbelt. I never even touched the airbag. Right now I have a few things taped up (lights and hoses) and the steering wheel airbag duct taped down. The engine is running fine, but a section of hosing is missing. I suffered no injury. I have a feeling the wild boar didn't suffer much either. I hit him at 50 mph dead center. No brakes. There's still some guts under the truck. Despite the damage, I must say it was kind of fun. The brief moments from the head appearing to regaining consciousnes I'll never forget. I figured I should write the rest down.