Just got home from a three day road trip, washing the bike, and I get this heavy whiff of hot, musty, death. So I bend in a little closer and smell my upper cowl. Yep, it's nasty. My bike reeks.

I didn't hit anything, but the roads have been covered with one animal or another every 1/4 mile in Missouri. A lot of bugs, a lot of road kill: that's how this year has been so far. And the damn turtles, the box turtles with a death wish. They're everywhere.

 

Isn't hitting a box turtle like hitting a rock in the road?

Thankfully I haven't hit anything with my bike since I whacked a buffalo broadside many, many years ago. A couple of things I learned, buffalo don't reflect light at night and it is possible to crawl away from a very large animal that can stomp you to death even if you can't breathe.

bob

 

That's my guess and, just like rocks, the size of the turtle is significant.