coyote ugly

no, this is not a reference to the movie.
no, this is not a reference to Robert and I taking advantage of scenic "dollar ballets".
this was meant to be a temporary place holder for me to relate what happened to me in the middle of the night in the panhandle of florida, west of pensacola.

The challenge of One Lap is more than just time on the tracks. It is the almost endless highway miles. Dicing it with the general public, which frankly, can't drive. Driving through construction zones in a car with "firm" suspension... *always* fun. Then there are the little love notes the truckers leave us, mostly on the side of the road. However, as happened to Walt & JC in the RX-350, those love notes are left in the middle of the lane.

There is also the challenge of wildlife. Bugs, Birds, Deer, heck Greer and I hit a bat in 2009! This year, I was cruising along in the right lane of I-10 when I saw the next car ahead, half a mile away brake then swerve half way into the left lane. Not that I was sleeping, but I was in 'auto-scan' cruise mode... and their manoeuvre definitely woke me up. Such that I saw something in the road, it looked large and maybe furry. Then I saw something dart into the road over the other object, and it looked up at me with two eyes illuminated by the miata's headlights. It was big, it's head was low... and was of dog-like proportions.

Now, this would most likely scare the excrement out of most people. However, I've spent the better part of this week finding out the limits of the miata. So, the instant I saw the situation I could feel in my fingers exactly how much I had to move the wheel left then right to pop into the left lane. What the feedback in the wheel would feel like, and how the lane change would feel through my backside. I did it on instinct, tapping the brake to set the nose, flicking the wheel. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it flee back to the right side of the road. We all got away clean, in large part to my driving on track and the instincts of whatever it was. It was an experience like I haven't had in a while. One that I've become prepared for, one that is a large part of One Lap... and I wanted to make sure I had a reminder that I should share it with you.