Tuesday February 23, 2016-Palms RV Park

Today was an interesting day. When we woke this morning, it was storming, with heavy rain and high winds. We learned from Erika that we were under a tornado warning that we didn't know about. We don't watch local television in the morning, and simply missed the warning. Oh well, by the time we learned of it, the warning had expired. Thank you Erika for letting us know we were in danger.

We had planned to go to Bellville this morning to early vote in the primary election but with the weather outside, we decided to put off leaving until it cleared off. We had originally planned to go to Bellville to vote and then meet our friend Bill at Tony's Family Restaurant in Sealy. Since we didn't leave on time, we went to the restaurant first. We got there a few minutes early and Bill was walking into the restaurant when we drove up. Perfect timing! As always, the food was great and it was nice to catch up with Bill. 

We left the restaurant and saw a very small chihuahua dog that was running loose on the busy Hwy. 36. We felt sorry for the little dog and followed him into  nearby subdivision where he seemed at ease. He went to one home in particular and sniffed at the front door, as if to say he was home. He went into the fenced back yard, so we left him. I hope someone let him in the house.

We continued on our way to Belville and about 10 miles outside of town, I noticed something in the road ahead. I kept an eye on it and when I got up close enough to see that it was a turtle, trying to get across the highway. I swerved to avoid hitting it but didn't pay any attention to a car that had been behind me in the left lane but I did see that I hadn't hit the turtle as it was still in the road. We continued on toward Bellville when the little red car came up alongside and pointed over to the shoulder. I didn't notice anything missing or hanging off my truck, but the other driver pulled over onto the shoulder. He was still waving his arms, so I pulled over too. I was very wary but the other car carried a man who walked with a limp and a pregnant woman. They walked up and said that I had damaged their car with the turtle, when it apparently blew up when I passed them. I told them that I was not responsible for animals on the road and that although I was sorry he had damage to his car, I was not responsible. He said he wanted to call the police, so I said we would wait. 

We waited about 15 or 20 minutes so I walked back to their car both to check out the damage and to check on who they had called and their possible arrival time. When I walked up, I didn't see anything but some blood and fluid on the windshield but he showed me that the glass had shattered around the edges of the glass. He said he had called the Austin County Sheriff's office and sure enough, as I walked back to my truck Deputy Packard arrived. After speaking with the complainant in the red car, he agreed with me in that I had no control over the turtle and that if it accidentally hit their car when I drove by it, it was not a reportable accident. Deputy Packard called a DPS Trooper to back up his decision and after taking my name, drivers license number and telephone number, he sent us on our way. I felt bad about the death of the turtle and bad about the damage to the other car, but I had no responsibility. I had done what I could to avoid running over the turtle and didn't see the other car at the time. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the time but at least no human was injured. It was a newer car and should be covered with full coverage insurance, so they will need to call them.

We continued into Bellville and got our voting done in short order. Gotta love these small towns! No long lines and everyone is very courteous so it was a very pleasant experience to help Make America Great Again.

So long