Pull Over, Pull Over...

It is the morning drive and I am cruising along just like all the others, maybe a little faster because after all I am in the fast lane. And that is when I see it…a white car parked on a little turnabout in between the four lanes of traffic. I put my foot on the brakes and slowly bring myself down to 60 mph, I was doing around 75mph.

I pass the car and look in my rearview and the car is pulling out behind me. At that moment, even before the lights came on, I knew I was getting pulled over. Just a few seconds later, the red, white and blue lights light up. Sigh…blinker on and changing lanes in order to get to the side of the highway.

I look at the officer through my rearview as he is approaching my car. My heart sinks a little when I recognize the uniform. He is a state boy. He asks for my license and insurance and wants me to explain why I was going so fast. The only excuse I can give him is that I was running late for work. I also had to explain why the plates would not match up to the car that I am currently driving, fun times right there! All of this while ending each sentence with a sir. Respect is one thing that I was raised to give an officer, even if they do pull you over.

He goes back to his car and runs all of my information. I know in my heart that I am going to be getting a ticket because I was going faster than what he would write a warning for.

He emerges about five minutes later with ticket in hand and explains everything to me. I am doing the entire yes sir and no sir thing again and thanking him, telling him to have a nice day, etc. He was kind and wrote it for 74mph in a 55mph zone, so he saved me some money on that. I truly believe that is what the respect can get you, just a tiny break when you need it because he could have easily written it for over 75mph.

I get to work and get out my checkbook so I can send off the payment today so I can get my license back sooner (in Illinois they take your license as bond when you get a ticket). And of course, I can’t mail in the ticket until 10 days after the date it was written.

Yeah it sucks to have this happen. I could have thought of many ways to spend $75 other than paying the State of Illinois. But thankfully, I do not have to obtain a lawyer to get on court supervision (there is a box you can check for that and it doesn’t cost anything extra). So I guess it just taught me to set my cruise control at 60mph and slow it down a bit. Sigh…I would have much rather have spent it the money on these though.