The Bat

bats and driving dont mix

   Bats, they're everywhere. They do their job well , which is to fly around using their sonar to find flying insects . Sometimes they get real close to you as they zoom about sweeping the clouds of mosquitos, and sometimes  they ....

 

     My Brother and I, we had enough change one day to drag out the fishing boat and tow it up to one of our favorite lakes. We spent the whole day up there and caught a few trout , good enough for dinner.  At the day's end we trailered the boat, cleaned the trout, put them on ice and headed on down the mountain.  

    The old toyota didnt have air conditioning, so we had the windows down and elbows hanging over the door's edge  The road was typical of the High Sierras, a narrow two lane strip of asphalt lined by boulders and pine trees , twisting  back and forth and rising up and down. 

    I was moving along ok , but a few cars started to appear in the rear view mirror, so I started looking for a turn out to let them by. As I came around one sharp bend  - POW!  something clobbers me in the side of the head.  Stunned,  I try to concentrate on the road wondering "what in the world just happened ?!".

    I then feel something move on my lap, look down and see an equally stunned bat regaining its senses also.  I reached for the little guy and soon as I touched its wing  , it  started flying in the very limited space between me and the dash board. It falls to the floorboard and then proceeds to climb up my leg into my pants!  Mind you, I am still travelling 40 miles and hour on a road that requires one to turn every 5 or 6 seconds . I then go into a full panic , the wild flailing of all limbs mode . I managed a glance over at my brother and he is pressed completely against his door - eyes big - mouth open .  I am still swatting and Mr Bat again falls to the floor, gets a lucky bounce, and shoots out my wimdow .

        Slowly, reality faded back in and I pull over into the pull out as the cars that were behind me pass by slowly to get a real good look at the crazy man driving that car . 

    I sat there eyes forward , trying to lower my heart rate and blood pressure . My brother finally breaking the silence, " WHAT IN THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT ?! "   I slowly looked  over at him and said , "Dont tell me you didnt see that Bat  ....."

 

Reviews

[Ed Hart]

one story leads to another...i was fifteen years old driving my '41 ford down one of those roads in the middle of the night coming out of Yosemite without any head lights thinking i was safe because there was enough moonlight to see except for the car coming up the mountain which also didn't have any lights on and me and my buddy left the road into a ravine turning over a couple of times and finally lodging between two tree that if they had been a couple of inches further apart we'd have gone right over that cliff and all this was long before i had any idea about angels...we laughed so hard it took awhile to peel ourselves out of what was left of the car and walk away

[Kerry O'Connor]

Yowzers!! A bat climbing up the pants leg is not cool!! Ugh..
Makes a great story, though, particularly your brother's reaction.

[Brad]

ROFLMAO...oh, you are my brother in more ways then one

[Samuel Dickens]

I guess there's another pretty good reason for having airconditioning. I'm usually pretty calm in panic situations, but I'd probably loose my cool, too, if a bat crawled up my pants.

[JelliFyshKissUs]

Lol!!! Your brother was pinned against his door because he thought you were going insane? Lol!!!! Only you, birdie. Only you.

[Coyote Poetry]

I lived in a country town. At night the bats own the city. I understand this story. I remember one time a bat landed in a girlfriend hair and scare her almost to death looking for bugs. A very strong story. These are the type of story we laugh at the next day. A very good story. Thank you.
Coyote