Flying Squirrels and Other Animal Encounters!

I went to Percy Warner Park yesterday after work to squeeze in a few hours on the bike before sunset.  The park is great because you have two main options...take it out on the Blvd for some flatter riding or take it into the park for some monster hills.  I chose both. 

While on the Blvd you have to be extra careful of the yuppies on their cells phones not noticing you flying by on your bike (or in my case, meandering by)...but when in the park you must be on the look out for FLYING SQUIRRELS!!  I am not kidding, it's complete pandemonium out there.  Squirrels are darting all over the place and testing you...well, one little guy must have taken the dare from his friend because he ran right out at me.  I was cruising along at 26 miles per hour when I saw it out of the corner of my eye.  I yelled "SQUIRREL" (not sure what that would accomplish) but it didn't scare him away.  He ran right at me from the left.  He went head first into my front wheel (I thought I was going to have a direct hit and run him over, but no) and ricocheted off my spoke and went flying in the air.  I quasi laughed and quasi freaked out...I mean, if I'm going to die from a bike wreck it's not because I ran over a freakin' chipmunk!  I looked back, after taking a split second to realize I was still upright, and that little guy was just laying there...crap, I killed him...but he stood up shook it off and darted back into the woods...only to torment another rider, I'm sure.  

Not the actual squirrel...but close to what those little kamikaze squirrels look like.  Rider beware!

In other animal news.  I did my 5 hour ride today and took it out on the trace for a good 3 hours of the 5.  At about mile 40 (of the 80...by the way, totally hurt right now) I see a turkey, a real live turkey...what?!  The thing was sitting in the middle of the road with it's tail feathers all flared...I had to swerve not to hit it.  A turkey and a squirrel in 24 hours would have been too much for me to handle, so I swerved.  WTF?  What's with all the random wildlife?  I of course instantly imagined the turkey sitting on my table surrounded by all the fixin's and thought and about going back for him (kind of like in the cartoons when the bubble pops over their head of a pork chop or something...that's what I saw!).  This only adds to my weird list...some others being the peacock loping down the road (no joke) and the donkey that chased alongside me while I rode by him.  Beats sitting on the couch and watching Animal Planet!