Barbara Martin Appraisal & Realty LLC                     Committed to Excellence
300 Clinton Avenue West, Suite 4            Telephone 256-534-0001
Huntsville, AL  35801-5590                        Toll-free 1-877-230-3635            Email barbara@barbmartin.com

The Bruce Chronicles

...dedicated to the "y" chromosome...

Tell me a little bit about Bruce...

This event happened a few years ago in the 100 Mile Wilderness. The 100 Mile Wilderness is located in Maine, a good distance northwest of Bangor. It’s actually 117 miles long and not really a wilderness (it is owned by a paper company), but other than that it’s perfectly named. Bruce was on a backpacking adventure at the time.

As Bruce drove down a dirt road in the 117-mile-long-not-really-a-wilderness, he saw many moose along the way. The moose did what moose typically do when a stranger drives through their territory—they ignored him. The sight of moose had become commonplace and Bruce was getting eager to arrive at his campsite when he found the road blocked by a young bull moose. It was rutting season, and this gangly bull apparently had been having problems "socially connecting" for lack of a better term. He was a sexually frustrated, angry, defiant young moose—much like your teenager.

Bruce’s vehicle came to a complete stop. The moose just glared at him. Bruce honked the horn of his S10 Blazer—the vehicle that was later to be dubbed "The Moosemobile". At that moment, the moose lowered its head and charged. With no maneuvering room, Bruce had just an instant to decide the best course of action was to duck beneath the dash—which he did with flourish and daring. The moose’s antlers made contact with the front passenger fender, creasing the fender and the hood all the way until they smashed through the windshield. After the noise subsided, Bruce—with flourish and daring—peered over the dash. The moose had spun around, regrouped and appeared ready to charge again. This time, however, it charged into the woods.

The next day Bruce made the phone call to his insurance agent back home in Alabama. Insurance agents hear a lot of stories, but most of them in Alabama don’t have a lot of "moose-attacked-my-car" claims.

Bruce, "I’m in Maine and a moose attacked my Blazer and shattered the windshield."

Agent, "You hit a moose?"

Bruce, "No, the moose hit me!!"

Agent:….long pause….then calls to his partner, "Hey, Al, we got another moose attack."

The windshield was replaced in Maine, but Bruce couldn’t bring himself to spend the rest of the insurance money hiring an actual professional to repair the rest of the damage. The Moosemobile proudly displayed its moose scars until its untimely death at 300,000+ miles.

Next week….Bruce camps in Rattlesnake Swamp.