Traveling at night is not safe for man nor beast. We were returning from a wonderful trip to California to admire the ocean and red woods and frolic with some friends. Our plan was to take three days to travel from California to Denver. When we passed Green River, WY on the second day, I (under the influence of that dumbing agent called testosterone) decided to drive into the night so we could reach Denver without having to camp in the beautiful Water Pocket Fold area near Green River. At about 9 pm traveling 65 mph on I-70 through Silverthorne, CO (one hour from home) a moose decided to introduce itself to our Grand Cherokee. All I remember is hearing a bang and seeing a moose’s head smash into the passage side door window where Marcia was setting. The Jeep instantly moved about 4 feet sideways, all power shut down (lights, engine, power steering, power brakes) alarms and warnings started flashing and blaring, the side airbags deployed, and Marcia screamed. How I kept the Jeep and trailer from crashing is still a mystery. After making sure Marcia was not hurt too bad, I focused on coasting the Jeep about a mile to the Silverthorne exit, which included a construction zone (two lanes narrowed down to one). Luckily, I had enough momentum to get off the exit and into a Safeway Parking lot. I learned that it is very, very hard to steer and brake the Jeep pulling a 6,000 lbs trailer when the power steering and brakes are no longer working. The long and short of it is that the Jeep was totaled, the Oliver was fine, moose was killed, and Marcia had minor bruising from the airbags. I really feel bad about the moose. I hope this lesson on the stupidity of driving at night during our travels doesn’t fade as time passes.