Road Trip: Restless Stop

The drive from Baltimore to Texas is long, tiresome and riddled with the unexpected. It took me nearly three days to drive halfway across the U.S., but I found out that it is sometimes better to find a rest-stop early. On long trips I set my cruise control, no leg cramps and less likely to be pulled over for speeding. When the sky begins to darken its always good to know where the rest-stops are. The road was dark, head lights appear in my rearview mirror, quikly flashing passed me. My eyes begin to readjust to the light and the brake lights flash I find myself ahead of this other car again. I notice the lights are flashing red and blue, I pull over uncertain. An officer taps my window and ask me if I know why I am being pulled over, then tells me I swerved as he passed and again as he slowed down. He asked me if I was intoxicated, to which I replied no, then pulling me from my car and placing me in the back of theirs. Handcuffed he ask to search my car, in Texas it is easier to let them search your vehichle, otherwise they take you to jail under suspicion. I was in Arkansas, they came prepaired with a mariad of gadgets I only seen on those CSI shows. Two hours later, what do they find for their trouble? Nothing, but before letting me go they had me sign a release form stating nothing was damaged and I was treated well. I was even more tired than when they first arrived, I asked them where the nearest rest-stop was, they said it was several miles up the highway. I took the nest exit and spent the night in the lot of a convinience store. In the morning I set back out, less than a mile up the highway I came across the rest area. I pulled over to clean out my car underneath the passanger floormat I found a hole drilled through my floorboard. My lugage had been torn open. I was infuriated, but I soon recalled the waiver, in addition to the fact I hadn’t the money to persue anything. The moral of this story if you find yourself driving across Arkansas late, find a rest area or get a room either would cost you less than getting pulled over.


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