The Day I Met the Police

We had a perfectly good freeway intersection where we could enter and exit with ease. Back a few years ago they decided it needed reworked. No one can figure out why. It’s quite confusing and it doesn’t even make sense. Money wasted.

Case in point about how confusing it can be to us locals… I was headed to the town adjacent to the freeway junction and came to the sign that said Phoenix straight ahead or Flagstaff to the right. The little town I wanted is not on the sign and not thinking, I took the Phoenix route. It was a wrong decision. Flagstaff was the road that would take me to the little town adjacent to the freeway and which was only a mile away.

As soon as I passed, I knew I had made the wrong decision. Not for the first time. And not for the first time, I decided I would just make a U-turn in the center median on the freeway right where it is clearly marked NO U-turn.

That was my second mistake.

The exit to the little town was as soon as I made the U-turn so it was quite convenient to pull into the McDonalds and wait for the cop to come to my window.

My son had already dug out the registration and insurance and I dutifully handed it to the police officer.

“Mmm, do you have another one? This one is 2 years old.”

Scrabbling through the other papers in the glove box, Justus vainly searched. The only registration paper we could find was expired and insurance papers? Never did find those!

“I’ll take that registration paper. Even though it’s expired, it’s a little more current than the other one.”

“Do you know the name of your insurance company?”

I hung my head in shame and emitted an embarrassed laugh.

“Uh, my husband changed insurance companies recently and I don’t remember what the new one is called.”

Talk about looking like a blonde!

He went back to his vehicle and was doing his job of making sure I wasn’t some escaped convict driving a stolen vehicle.

Lights flashing…

And the friends that I was supposed to be meeting? They were there to witness it all… and were treating it like it was a spectator sport. I was their morning entertainment and it must have been a good show by the huge smiles on their face.

Finally, I was called back to his vehicle where I was told that the registration plates on the truck were expired. Seriously? It should have been no surprise to me for I was driving my husband’s vehicle after all. I’ve seen this so many times that I am hardly astounded any more.

Fortunately, Mr. Officer was kind to me and only gave me a warning. No requirement to show proof of insurance or anything else. He made sure I knew it would not go against my record. He probably figured anyone that had no clue who their insurance company was or that was completely shocked to find the plates of the vehicle they were driving had expired was like a baby in this big world and needed help.

He’s probably right.

Do you ever get in these situations or is it just me? (whimper, whimper)

I feel like an case example of what it’s like to live with a husband who doesn’t conform to the normal status quo. What do you think?

And if you’re wondering about my title… I couldn’t think of anything better. I sure didn’t want search engines to pull up my post about driving unlawfully or illegally… so I settled for meeting a police officer. haha