Front Porch Conversations: Traveling Mercies

Deer collisions are just as much a part of living in Georgia as peaches and pecans. These collisions are not isolated to rural areas of the state. There have been plenty of times when I've come close to hitting deer in the suburbs of Atlanta.

My first and only (at the time of writing this blog) deer collision in Georgia happened in 2009. I was in the process of interviewing for a job at a local radio station and my whole family was with me at the time. We had been driving all day from Tupelo, Mississippi and my reaction time was little slow.

My wife was the first person to see the doe running along side of our car and I knew the deer was going to run out in front of us -- it was just a matter of seconds. I slammed on the breaks, the car slowed to about 20 mph, and I caught the deer in the rump and flipped it up on the hood and she slid all the way to the roof. How we got away with minimal damage and why the deer didn't come through the window is beyond me. The deer actually got up and ran off after a couple minutes. This all happened on I-85 just outside of Newnan.

Once we decided to take the job, there was a lot of traveling back and forth between Tupelo and Atlanta.   God granted us plenty of traveling mercies during this period of our life. Besides the protection during the deer collision, there was an issue with my car overheating during these 12 hour hauls back and forth. I thought it was just a thermostat issue but it was much deeper.

The issue was actually a blockage in the radiator that created so much pressure it eventually blew out the manifold gasket. It was a miracle that it didn't happen during one of these long hauls because there was this stretch of highway 78 in Alabama that was in the middle of nowhere for a couple hours.

When it did finally blow, we were at the Atlanta airport. We had parked there in order to take Marta up to the Georgia Aquarium. When we got back all the coolant was on the ground. Luckily I had another gallon in the trunk and by some miracle we made it all the way back to Griffin (some folks know how big of a miracle that really is in Atlanta traffic) with the gasket blown. Then just as we entered Griffin, the whole coolant system gave way and I couldn't drive anymore.

Fortunately the car decided to breakdown right next to a Christian repair shop called Griffin Motors. All I can say is that the Lord was looking out for us. Traveling mercies...they are more than just a polite pleasantry.