The End of Susie

As many of you know, I own a 2000 Hyundai Elantra that has been lovingly named “Susie Brahmaputra”, or Susie for short. It is the first car I owned, being purchased for me by my mom using life insurance money left from my dad. The car itself is a little tank. I’ve been mudding with it up on dirt roads in Oklahoma. It has driven me virtually everywhere. I left the lot with it at 128 miles and at last note, it has 87,383 miles on it.

A week ago today, I drove from Austin to Wichita Falls to be with my family for my mom’s operation. Since I left in the morning, I wanted to avoid as much traffic as possible and decided to avoid IH-35. The “back way” to Wichita Falls is US 183 north out of Austin to US 281 north in Lampasas. US 281 will take you all the way to Wichita Falls.

On US 281 between Jacksboro and Windthorst, out of the corner of my eye, I see a full-grown buck (male deer) clear out of the high grass next to the roadway. I slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid a hit, but to no avail.

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I was not injured, so no worries there. Susie, however, did not fair so well. Not realizing the full extent of the damage, I called State Farm and was referred to a body shop in Wichita Falls (after limping home).

State Farm called the next morning and told me that the initial estimate would total the car. They would send out their own person to look at the damage to confirm or refute the total value loss. Long story short, I am now looking for a new car.

We signed over the car to State Farm yesterday morning and received our settlement. They’ll take Susie to be chopped up and the rest of her will be used for parts.

May Susie rest in pieces.