I never drive over eighty but my my sister was waiting for me to get to her house so we could ride together. Eighty five didn't seem too extreme under the circumstances so I fell in behind a little black Mazda near the Georgia state line. He was booking it so I followed...from a distance. He had to be doing at least ninety.
We got to the town of PoDunk (not really) and I started to lose him. I pulled into the passing lane to pass a grandpa in a 1970's caddy and about thirty seconds later, after moving back over into the middle lane, blue lights came on behind me.
DAMMIT!
I had my license and insurance card already out when I rolled my window down. He asked if I knew how fast I had been going to which I replied "Not quite as fast as the black Mazda that was in front of me."
I immediately apologized and said I knew I had been speeding but was running late for my cousin's funeral in Atlanta.
He was nice enough but that chaw covering his teeth? Yuck. He also asked if I would like to see my recorded speed on his radar to see if it was calibrated correctly?
Gee, if I only had a degree in radar calibration, maybe could have fought it.
But I don't so I didn't.
Instead I said it was okay, I was late for a relatives funeral, knew I was guilty but just needed to get back on the road.
He moseyed back to his car and took enough time for the black Mazda to be safely into the next county.
This is the thing which irritated me most. I ain't real smart but I know you don't get out of your car when pulled over by a cop, which was fine with me. There wasn't much room to pull over and cars were whizzing by with Buford T preoccupied with giving me a ticket.
Then he comes back to my window with the ticket to sign. He asked me to get out of my vehicle and follow him to the rear of my car.
Really??
But I did.
My door was hard to open with cars screaming past ...maybe three feet away. I've watched enough Youtube and World's Dumbest videos to know what can happen in the emergency lane on the highway, and we weren't in an emergency lane, we were parked on gravel on the side of a busy stretch of I-75 in south Georgia, on a weekend.
He pointed to the back of my car and asked where I got my bumper sticker?
He asked if I knew where she had gotten it? I told him I did not.
He said, "I sure do like it...you can get back in your car now."
I'm still not sure if he was trying to add bribery to my offense, or was just wanting a pretty cool bumper sticker, but either way sure felt like pulling that magnetic paw off my car and handing it to him, and saying "Let's just call it even."
These are the kind of things which give good cops a bad name.
I drove back home to Orlando after the funeral with my cruise control set to seventy five mph whn passing back through that same PoDunk county. I felt like I was driving a snail shell instead of a vehicle.
And yes, my husband wasn't happy about my ticket after I got home and told him.
I was even more unhappy when I went online today and found out my ticket was going to cost me $422.00.
Yeah I was speeding, and shouldn't have been.
My bad.
It was extenuating circumstances though...and you can't tell me my drivers record didn't show that this was my first offense in over twenty years, when he plugged my license number into the system.
I am so glad I didn't offer to give him my "Shed Happens" bumper sticker. I probably would have been arrested for bribery.
He doesn't deserve it...and obviously doesn't know how to use Google search for anything.
Dang, I wasn't transporting drugs or illegals or under the influence.
Lesson learned...but mixed signals received.
Yeah, my husband was ticked after I got home and told him but after hearing the entire story, did just what I did.
Shook his head.
As Jed Clampett so often used to say "Pitiful...just pitiful."
You can't fix stupid.
Yes I was speeding but always used my blinkers when passing or changing lanes.
People don't even do that when on surface streets anymore.
Trust me, it will be my last speeding ticket.
You can't cry over spilled milk or money...both are refillable.
Till next time...
A broke for a while COTTON
P.S. Decided to be the better person today (now a day later) so went online and ordered him his 'Shed Happens' car magnet. His name is on my ticket as is the address of the Sheriff's Dept. Maybe when he gets the manilla envelope, will think "Maybe I should have let her off with a stern warning or dropped the speed a bit for her so she doesn't have to pay so much. After all, she was on the way to her cousin's funeral."
Either way, it makes me feel better and that is what matters in the long run.
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