One of "Those" People
First, like all good bloggers, I want to say sorry for not sticking to my deal of posting often; it has been just about one week since my last post. Honestly too, this should have been written last week too.
So we've all seen it. As we are driving, we see the person who has been pulled over. Not only were they pulled over by one cop, but there is a second police car there. As you drive by, I don't know what goes through your head, but a couple of the thoughts I have are: Gosh, they must have been on some exciting police chase!. Or, Sheesh! They must have been shooting at the police to have been pulled over. Or something equally exciting, illegal, and dangerous.
I was driving to Monument with a friend after church on Friday night. We were headed there to get his skis for a weekend in the mountains. Now, I only need to be on the interstate for a couple miles from the church to Monument. Normally I am one who likes to get from point A to point B as fast as possible; when you have good company though, it's nice to take your time. I'm driving in the right lane like a good driver and even going under the speed limit. There is a cop who had just finished pulling someone over, so he was merging back onto the interstate from the shoulder. I let him get in front of me knowing our exit was just a mile up the road and there was no sense in passing him (as i normally would). Not a half a minute later, he pulls back onto the should and slows down. I thought nothing of it as he was probably just going to sit in a speed zone to catch someone else. As I passed him, he put his blinker back on and got back on the interstate... behind me. Sure enough those red and blues started flashing. As I am pulling off I am thinking of what I did wrong; after all, I have never been pulled over from a cop that was in front of me. Surely I wasn't speeding; maybe following too close; are my lights on?!
As Dave and I are sitting there, he assures me I was NOT following too close, and I verify that my lights are in fact on. I just laugh. After we are sitting there a minute, Dave says "Did you know there are TWO police cars back there!?" I certainly didn't believe him, but sure enough as I look behind me I can see the second cars red and blues though the windows of the first car. Once again the mind starts going: Am I in a stolen car? Did DAVE do something wrong? Did I run over someone and not know it!?
As the policemen (notice the plural) walk up to the car, they flash lights in the back looking for contraband, booze, or whatever they look for. TAP TAP. The cops flashlight strikes my window lightly. As I roll down the window the man in blue asks what we are doing. I explain the situation of driving to Monument to go snowboarding for the weekend. He then starts to go into some shpeel about my lights are "legal." I assure him that I know they are because a different cop a couple years ago explained to me the difference for which were legal and which weren't. "Oh, ok" he says, "well, I'm going to need to see your license." After a bit of an awkward pause I say "Do you want to see my insurance and registration too?" (Can you tell I've been pulled over before? Or maybe I know the routine from all the times I was with Josh when he was pulled over.) "Yeah, that'd be good" he mutters. As I hand them to him, he heads back to his car; he comes back not a minute later just saying "Have a good night."
I can think of a couple times where it would have been more appropriate to have two police cars pull me over, but when does a cop call for backup when he has to slow down to pull some one over?!
