I had an enounter of the weirdest kind.

[flynrider]

I've had plenty of close calls with large birds on the road, but fortunately I've been able to avoid them. My first encounter was with a large golden eagle eating a dead rabbit somewhere in NM. I expected the bird to fly away as I approached. What I didn't expect was seeing this bird's 6-7 ft. wingspan suddenly block my entire lane. I ended up running off the side of the road (fortunately upright). Now when I see a large bird up ahead, I slow down to walking speed to give it time to take off.

Hiram, sorry to hear about the tank ding. Maybe this might be a good time to go for a new look. Samurider has about 20 different tanks available :

https://www.samurider.com/?cat=269