Road Kill...

When Lacey was little I wanted to come up with some sort of game to help us pass the time of being cooped up in a car for any extended period of time.  I also wanted to help teach her to be aware of her surroundings and pay attention to the things around her.  To see what a lot of people miss most of the time.  Something that would keep her interested that was different from the usual *yawn* of I-Spy or counting a million and one license plates from the different states.

The game that we came up with?  Counting and identifying road kill.

Deer were always easy to recognize.  Bambi pretty much looks the same laying on the side of the road no matter if he was hit by a semi or a Geo Metro.  We found that deer were the most common species of road kill and it doesn't matter what state you go through.  You will see at least one and you don't have to look very hard to notice it.

Rabbits and squirrels were a little harder to spot because they are smaller.  You have to look at it a little bit closer to identify which one it is.  Smaller animals unfortunately don't stand up to being road kill quite as easily as a deer.  One of the rules of the game was that if you were unable to identify what species the road kill is then it is automatically categorized as a spider monkey.

Now Lacey missed out the one time that Mom and I were on our way to Walmart in Greencastle and actually saw a male lion laying dead on the side of the road, twice.  Once on the way there and I asked her to slow down on the way back so I could confirm that it was in fact a male lion.  And it was.  Another victim of road kill.  Now, my question would be... what the hell goes through your mind when you slam into a male lion standing in the road in the middle of BFE in Putnam County, Indiana?  

I have this secret sick obsession to stop every time I see a squirrel, coyote or fox that has become a victim of road kill and cut it's tail off to start a collection.  I have no idea where that obsession comes from but every once in a while I would yell, "Pull over so we can get the tail!"

So... here is the road kill report from this past week's trip:

Mississippi:  0  (But we did see a burrow on a rope tied to a tree in someone's front yard.)  

Alabama:  2 deer

Tennessee: 2 deer, 1 turtle  (And a sign advertising "Free Used Cows."  WTF is a used cow???)

Kentucky: 1 deer, 1 wild pig, 1 coyote

Indiana: 2 deer, 1 squirrel

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Feel free borrow our game of road kill.  It does help the time pass between naps on the road.

Happy Sunday!

*hugs*

Lanie