Somewhere there is a deer wondering where its ass went
As it turns out, the whole "do not drink in alcohol state parks" in Michigan is more of a suggestion than a real law, at least judging by the contents of the trash cans we passed, which empowered us to also treat it as a suggestion. I also learned how to skip rocks. Sort of.
Still, what's the point of going to a lake in the summer if you can't drink...
Unfortunately, I ended up having to cut my few days away short for personal reasons, and amusingly enough, on the way back we hit a deer. A great big deer, which has put a fun crimp in many things and made getting home an adventure, but luckily no one was seriously hurt.
I officially hate Michigan, have reaffirmed my hatred of cars, and am seriously thinking of taking up hunting.
Posted by drunkenbatmanJuly 10, 2005, at 11:25 PM
Comments (10)
Posted by: Carl at July 10, 2005 11:37 PM
No one was hurt?
I predict you're about to get a ton of comments to the effect of "the deer is a one!"
My sister totaled her car on a deer a couple years back, so I know how you feel though. Those things are becoming a menace to suburban life.
Posted by: Jason Terhorst at July 11, 2005 12:26 AM
Heh. "menace to suburban life". But the deer were here first. What if we are a menace to deer life?
Of course, hunting is always a good idea, because it helps to control the population, so that the poor animals don't starve to death. And they make good eatin'!
Posted by: Nabil at July 11, 2005 12:48 AM
Glad to hear (well, infer) you're all alright.
A hearty agreement about Michigan, by the way... the only part I actually liked was way up in the upper peninsula. Really peaceful and chill, which was just what I needed after hauling through Detroit the day prior.
Any law is a suggestion until you get caught. As far as drinking in parks and at the beach and such... from talking to some rangers after hours, it's more that they want to discourage keggers and OPEN drinking. If you keep it on the down-low, most rangers I've met are cool about it all. (Take it with a grain of salt, though, you never know when you're going to get an ass on duty, and it's not something I've ever had to test, since I don't drink.)
Posted by: Mac-arena the Bored Zo at July 11, 2005 03:27 AM
I want to go to an alcohol state park.
Posted by: Daniel Morrison at July 11, 2005 07:53 AM
My car is still scarred from a deer hit in November...
Sorry to hear your Michigan experience was less than pleasant. If you ever make it to the little lake Michigan town of Holland, drinks are on me.
Posted by: Derek at July 11, 2005 11:46 AM
There are a lot more deer than there was 5 years ago due to the Chronic Wasting Disease scare. You see, some people around northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin bought protein feed for deer to help grow their antlers. What they never checked for was where that protein had come from...like England. It's illegal to use protein feed in Wisconsin, but corn and such is okay so long as you don't put it in bins (CWD spreads through common feeding areas, too).
Chronic Wasting Disease is just like Mad Cow Disease but for deer. People were afraid they would get a possible brain disease from eating deer meat so many people stopped hunting deer. There have not been any reports of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer past somewhere between Madison and Wisconsin Dells.
Posted by: Ankalon at July 11, 2005 04:43 PM
CWD's prion forms have been in Colorado for a few decades. There have been NO cases reported in humans. It doesn't react on the human body like BSE, though it may lay latent, but that has been all but disproved by time itself.
The only thing CWD has in common with BSE is that they are the same type of disease, errant proteins, formed by cannibalism. What happens is that the proteins from one cow (Bessie) may have a special form that works in that cow. When Bessie's useful life (just like a computer) is up, an unscrupulous farmer may just grind her up instead of putting her to pasture. That ground up cow is turned into high protein feed, where that special protein starts to act in the second cow, but since it's a different form, it acts as a disease instead of a regular protein, hijacking cells and spreading like any other microorganism.
The same thing happened with CWD. A hunter used some high-protein feed with deer in it, and the rest is CDC history. Except that there has to be quite a few contacts like this before the exactly right protein gets out.
Or it spread by physical contact from deer from out west. Who knows?
Posted by: Greg at July 11, 2005 10:02 PM
I HATE deer. I urge everyone to take up hunting to kill those stupid creatures.
I ride a motorcycle, and have had quite a few close calls, and many, many people warn me "watch out for the deer." Why? Because they are so damned stupid.
Posted by: Sandy at July 13, 2005 03:52 AM
Deer fall into two categories.
The basically cool deer that hang out on my road, who look up in greeting from the field as you pass by.
Then you've got your suicidal deer. They are the bad ones, so anxious to die that they'll launch themselves into the side of your passing vehicle.
I've accomodated two of them by putting them out of their misery in the last 10 years, at $500 bucks a pop insurance deductible.
I've heard of local commuters who have hit five so far on their way to work in the morning. Beware of dawn and dusk.
I have this image of a drunk American in a black rubber suit (with nipples) carrying a hunting rifle. Scary!