Kamikaze turkey was no chicken

It was Tom Turkey's most desperate flight: head-first into a minivan bound for Grandma's house.

Tom met Cary's Bow family and their Honda Odyssey on Tuesday in Kentucky, a state home to many wild turkey.

Jonathan Bow, a pastor at Crosspointe Church in Cary, figures Tom's flight was nothing more than a pre-emptive strike.

His wife, Adrianne, is a vegetarian, but he and their two sons are enthusiasts for Thanksgiving's main attraction. Tom Turkey's head-first assault, Bow thinks, was an attempt to spare his Butterball brethren from a certain feast.

It worked. The Bow boys, 7-year-old Caden and 4-year-old Trace, have now lost their appetite.

"They are boycotting turkey this weekend," said Bow. "That turkey tried to stop us from getting to Louisville."

Just after 11 a.m., the Bows eased onto the home stretch of Interstate 64 in their native Kentucky.

Bow was pushing the minivan to 70 mph when he spotted the bird on the shoulder of the road. Tom stood less than four feet tall with a girth about twice that of the modest Butterball. Bow saw him spread his wings, which flapped as slowly as molasses.

"I honestly saw him turn his neck and look straight at me before he flew into us," Bow said by phone Wednesday.

Adrianne screamed.

The boys whimpered.

Tom bounced.

Bow steered their car off the road and calmed his boys. Then, he did what any man of the ministry would do: He spread the word.

Bow pulled out his cell phone to snap pictures of Tom's feathers sticking through his shattered windshield. He posted a play-by-play of Tom's last moments on his blog. And he's already fashioned a version of the story to tell from the pulpit Sunday.