Tuesday, July 21, 2009

My trip to and from The Gem State (aka the potato state)!

Now I will forewarn you. This post will be wordy. I know this comes as a surprise to you that anything I would write would be that way, but it is what it is. I just arrived home last night after a trip to Idaho for my family reunion. My sister and I drove out there with her two kids. I love car trips! We went on numerous LONG car trips growing up and some of my best memories come out of those experiences. The drive to Idaho is almost as familiar to me as my drive to work (about as long too). We left at Midnight on Wed. night and drove to Missoula Montana the next evening. When we stopped in Billings for lunch, I pulled out my wallet to discover that I had indeed, left my drivers license at home. This will be important for later in the story.
The rest of the drive out was pretty uneventful. We killed approximately 42,324 insects on the way out (and almost double that on the way home), my nieces watched approximately 350 movies (why didn't they have portable DVD players when I was younger?) and I drank WAY too many bottles of water which caused WAY too many bathroom breaks. My dad would have had a fit! We arrived at my Aunt and Uncle's cabin Friday night...had a great time with family and then had to turn around and begin the trek back Sunday morning. This is where the story gets interesting.
I was driving along in Montana on Sunday afternoon. Now, those who know me know that I am not much of a speeder. I do however like to go about 5 MPH above the limit. I have never really considered this speeding as more so trying to keep myself from looking like I belong in a Buick. We were about 20 miles outside of Bozeman and I was cruising along as usual. I saw a cop as I was passing him on the shoulder and knew instantly that I was in trouble. I of course slowed down a whopping 5MPH to try and hide. This did not work. I saw flashing lights and knew I was in big trouble. I pulled to the side and the officer walked to the passenger side of the car. The conversation happened as follows. We will call him officer A as his last name started with that letter and for no other reason.
Officer A: "Can I please see your license and registration? I clocked you going a little fast back there."
Me: "Sure, my license is in the trunk in my purse though." (now know that I was not lying. I had my expired license in my purse in the trunk)
OA: "ok, go and get it out."
(during this time my sister is handing him the car registration and apologizing for the fact that it expired July 1st-points for us!!!)
Me: (officer A has walked back to the trunk where I am pulling out "my license"), " I left my real license at home and didn't realize it until we were already in Billings, there were only two of us to drive and so I had to help my sister out. This is my expired license." (all of this is said in a voice so shaky I can only imagine how it sounded)
OA: Ok, go and sit in the front seat of my car.

Now this is the point where the story gets better. It is also the point where I must stop for the day. The rest will come tomorrow....I promise!

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