A moose came running full speed from the woods and straight into the passenger side of our van! We didn't even see her until her head hit our windshield.
Then her entire body swung around and wiped out all three windows on the passenger side, tore off the mirror and pretty much dented all the side panels and doors...
And as a special bonus, the impact also emptied her bowels into the back of our van...
We got safely off to the side of the road and got out to survey the damage. There was glass and moose hair EVERYWHERE! And I mean everywhere. There was even moose hair embedded into the plastic paneling in the opposite side of the van. I had glass and hair over every inch of me.
The first guy who stopped to see if we were okay, asked us if we had a gun. Believe it or not, the moose survived but was still lying on the side of the highway. He had one but wasn't willing to shoot it. Moose are the property of the State of Alaska and all. He called the State Troopers for us before leaving since Chris was on the phone with Allstate. He also mentioned how lucky we were.
*This, by the way, is my shameless plug for Allstate insurance. They were GREAT! Prompt, caring, concerned... They called us a tow truck right away to come and get us.
About 15 minutes later, the moose got up and walked back into the woods!
After what seemed like forever, we could hear sirens in the distance. Then an EMT truck came over the hill. My immediate thought was, "Why did they send them???" But then it flew on by, followed by two fire trucks and a trooper. The trooper stopped, rolled down his window, said he was on his way to an accident and that he would be back. Not a problem, we weren't going anywhere...
The second person to stop was a couple who lived close by. They told us multiple times that we were very fortunate because it could have been a whole lot worse. There are lots of really not nice stories about moose and cars. I won't share them here. While we were chatting and waiting for the trooper and tow truck, they asked where we were from. Turns out he grew up right here in Longview! It's a small world!
While we were still yakking, the state trooper got back. He looked at the van, asked a few questions, and told us we could just drive it back into town, clean it up, replace the windshield, visqueen the windows and drive it home. Then he gave us a form to fill out for our insurance, went back and shot the moose and left. Since the general consensus from everyone else was it was a total, we chose to wait for the tow truck.
Just minutes after the trooper left, the food bank showed up in a truck to get the moose. In Alaska they give all usable road kill to local homeless shelters. And before we knew it, they had loaded her up and were heading back into town. It was good to know she was not just going to rot on the side of the road.
The tow truck finally arrived, got us all loaded up and drove us back to the wrecking yard in Fairbanks...
The next several hours were spent on the phone with insurance agents, adjusters, car rentals, hotels, family, credit union...
We also called the mechanic and cancelled our appointment and called the auto parts store to tell them we didn't need the new dip stick anymore.
The funny thing is (well, not really funny) that when we ordered the dip stick on Sunday the guy said we should just wait to pay for it when we picked it up "because you never know what will happen." Thanks for jinxing us, jerk... ;) Just kidding!
First step, walk 2 miles from the wrecking yard to the U-Haul to rent a pickup from to get all of our gear from the van and to a hotel.
Second step, go back to the van and empty it out. Sifting through things deciding what to keep and what to let go was not a fun step. It was utterly amazing that even the things in the very middle of the van under the raised bed were still full of moose hair and glass. And after sitting in the sun all day, the smell was horrific! But we got everything loaded into the rental truck, said goodbye to our van (and 10 years of great memories)...
Third step, go to WalMart and buy lots of lots of cleaning supplies...
Fourth step, find a hotel. I'd done some research and made some calls but I wasn't willing to make a reservation without seeing them first. And I am so glad we did! The very last place on our list was by the university in a residential neighborhood. Turns out it was just where God knew we needed to be!
A quiet place with a full kitchen, large bathroom with jetted tub, a living room, laundry facilities and a great big yard with a hose to clean all of our stuff...
We spread everything out in the grass and spent the next 6 hours cleaning, throwing things away, washing dishes and doing laundry. We finally finished and took a much needed shower at 11:30pm.
The last step was to finally get something to eat. But there aren't many choices at midnight. The northern-most Denny's in the world won out...
Oh, and it turns out that the sun does set (sort of) at about 1:30 am...
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