So there I am cruising down 41 from Green Bay to Appleton to get to work, singing along with the radio to the latest Hillary Duff song
and I see the right side of the caddy in front of me launch into the air about 12 ~16 inches. Now in morning traffic on 41 there is not much room in between cars. Little better then Milwaukee traffic in the morning, but not much. As I hit the brakes I see some sort of gray shape appear from underneath the bouncing caddy. It still looked small from 5~6 car lengths in front of me, so I figured I would try to drive over it with a wheel on ether side. As I got closer I realized that it was an Extension Ladder.(My Bad...
) Laying in the fast lane of the highway. Lame. Not enough room to try and swerve to the left and out of the way, cars on the right... Also to late to scream like a little girl... Just enough time to grit teeth and take it... I heard the most god awful scraping noise ever as it went between my wheels. Look back just in time to see the guy in the Saturn (who was tailgating me in for braking in the left lane) get launched by the ladder that he never had a chance to see. Other cars swerve, or bounce all in a row, kind of like a cartoon, really. So I am now listening to the car run with the radio down, trying to hear any odd noises. none. It's two exits to my office, so I decide to just head there and take a look once I hit the parking lot. So I'm down on my hands and knees, feeling the front lip like a blind man, and poking around underneath the car looking for anything that it hit. The only mark that I could find was a 2 inch gash on the very bottom of the fender lip. The engine has a plastic scrape gaurd that didn't seem any worse for wear, and the low point on the exhaust seemed fine. I went back and carefully grabbed the muffler and did the shake test. It seemed fine.
All I can say is I'm glad it was the Mercedes instead of the Stealth. That little plastic scrape guard under the engine is pretty sweet. Depending on how my first oil change goes I may be cursing it later, but today it's a hero.
After this I don't think that I will lower my Stealth, though I think it sits at about the hieght of the MB right now. If the Mercedes was any lower I would have left my front bumper on the highway, and possibly other stuff. That would have been a large mess.
still recovering from that one