Train and a Ticket

Recently on my last trip to Lake Chautauqua to visit my son and his family, I found myself traveling on Interstate 86 in New York State. The scenery was beautiful and the road, well maintained and smooth.

I found myself itching to get to my destination. I popped in my CD, by the musical group Train and started to listen to it. When the song Drive By started to play, I cranked up the volume and sang at the top of my lungs. I played the song over and over, singing louder and louder, and driving faster and faster.

Suddenly, I noticed a black police cruiser with the lights flashing right behind me. I slowed down and pulled to the side of the road. I turned off the music and muttered…Nice going, you did it again. Well maybe those weren’t my exact words but you get the meaning. I opened the window and the policeman asked, “Do you know how fast you were going?”

With a nervous voice, I answered, “Actually – I have no idea.”

“You were traveling 82 mph in a 65 zone.”

“Really? Wow, that was pretty fast. I’m sorry about that.”

We ran through the preliminaries of car registration and driver’s license. He took both back to his air conditioned vehicle, as I sat with the window opened, sweating in the heat.

What a surprise my son the cop would have. Even though I mentioned he was a policeman, I found out that they don’t always reciprocate favors. The policeman only said, “Your son is going to know that his mother has the lead foot.” I thought to myself…what a surprise, he already knows that. But I managed to keep my mouth shut. (The result would be a $200 ticket, which included an $80 surge charge!)

I drove carefully away from the scene of my crime, well under the speed limit. I managed to maintain the correct speed to my destination, and on my return trip home. Let’s be honest, it is really hard to keep a heavy foot on the light side.

You would think that I should have known better. It could have been a whole lot worst, I could have been driving my Mustang and playing Train. I shudder to think about that and maybe I should consider myself lucky not to have gone faster and maybe even have gotten arrested.