The Hellmobile is repaired and retrieved from the dealer. The entire bill was only slightly more than my deductible, so I paid it and won't bother trying to file a claim. Alan just asked what I was blogging about and when I told him, he said, "Make sure you mention that driving back in the daylight we got a good look at that curb, and there are dozens of huge gouges out of it. Obviously you aren't the first person to get confused and have a run-in with it." He's correct, and some of those gouges were really large and deep, so much so that it's hard to imagine a vehicle doing that and remaining intact.

Oh, and this was wild: on the way to the dealer we came upon a line of traffic heading in the opposite direction, held up by a guy who wanted to turn left. Not everyone had the time or the patience to wait, however and we watched in amazement as a Budget rental van (a big one - a moving van, not a people van) drove off the road, onto the dirt shoulder, passed the would-be turner and swerved back onto the roadway. I said, "Damn, dude! I don't know if I'da done that!" at the same time as Alan said, "Whoa there, home slice!"

And yet it's me who broke my car. Go figure.