So... THIS happened on the way to California.

[Wryly Blithe]

Originally Posted by TQ60

Along rt65 nirth of Bakersfield they have "dog size" rabbits.

We had to make a trip at night to a site along the east side route and traveling up an unforgiving oil road there were hundreds of them running across the area and we were amazed at their size as tjey were huge and lanky...looked nothing like the cotton tails or pets you normally see but more like you would expext in a horror movie.

Yes we grow them big here...

Thanks, TQ, for that visual... that's never, ever going away I knew there was a good reason to bypass Bakersfield.

[sikorge]

Glad to see/hear it was only the windshield
Hope your trip was ok in other ways.
Happy travels.

[LeeRevell]

You got off easy. A buddy was riding his motorcycle on the highway when he came upon a buzzard full from his roadkill meal. Bird couldn't get airborn fast enough. Hit my buddy in the chest. He managed to NOT go down, but he was mighty sore, and...... messy! Buzzards tend to violently 'expel' their meals when hit. Very stinky!!
Could have been a disaster had he not stayed up. I tow my bike on roadtrips now, enjoying the comfort of the campervan. Haven't hit a bird..... yet. Close, once.

[Wryly Blithe]

Originally Posted by LeeRevell

You got off easy. A buddy was riding his motorcycle on the highway when he came upon a buzzard full from his roadkill meal. Bird couldn't get airborn fast enough. Hit my buddy in the chest. He managed to NOT go down, but he was mighty sore, and...... messy! Buzzards tend to violently 'expel' their meals when hit. Very stinky!!
Could have been a disaster had he not stayed up. I tow my bike on roadtrips now, enjoying the comfort of the campervan. Haven't hit a bird..... yet. Close, once.

Yikes! I took a rock to the faceshield once when riding down the highway... truck going in the opposite direction threw it up. I heard his tire ping and then BLAM! Yeah, that was fun.

A buzzard to the chest? Yeah, not so much

[Forest Grump]

Slow down to 45?? That's not slow! The big rabbits are jack rabbits.

[Wryly Blithe]

Speed is relative: 45 in heavy traffic might be too fast, but 45 on a wide-open back-country highway without any other cars on the road would be crawling.

I was doing maybe 55-60 when I saw the hawk. I slowed by engaging the jake, not the brakes. So I'm guessing that in the 5 seconds between seeing the hawk and it hitting us I was probably doing between 40-45. It's just a guess, of course; I was too busy concentrating on other things at that moment to look at the speedo.

And the size of the rabbit is irrelevant... the hawk eating it is what broke our windshield. We didn't even know what it was until the hawk picked it up and tried to fly away with it

In any case, it's all good now.

[Forest Grump]

Originally Posted by Wryly Blithe

Speed is relative: 45 in heavy traffic might be too fast, but 45 on a wide-open back-country highway without any other cars on the road would be crawling.

I was doing maybe 55-60 when I saw the hawk. I slowed by engaging the jake, not the brakes. So I'm guessing that in the 5 seconds between seeing the hawk and it hitting us I was probably doing between 40-45. It's just a guess, of course; I was too busy concentrating on other things at that moment to look at the speedo.

And the size of the rabbit is irrelevant... the hawk eating it is what broke our windshield. We didn't even know what it was until the hawk picked it up and tried to fly away with it

In any case, it's all good now.

Been on that road many times. BTW speed is not relative it appears you were overdriving, going to fast for conditions, you hit the hawk. Was just saying jackrabbits are big.

[Wryly Blithe]

Originally Posted by Forest Grump

Been on that road many times. BTW speed is not relative it appears you were overdriving, going to fast for conditions, you hit the hawk. Was just saying jackrabbits are big.

lol... seriously? Wow...

[Forest Grump]

Yup!