Ticket to Ride

Saturday morning, on my way to the Buck Brannaman clinic, I stopped for gas and discovered my wallet missing from my purse. I had been shopping online the previous evening and left it on my desk next to my computer. The trusting fellow at the gas station accepted a check without I.D. and I was back on the road. I'm not a speeder, but I took extra caution to observe the speed limit closely as the Interstate was thick with Highway Patrolmen giving tickets. Heaven forbid should I get pulled over and found to be driving without a license.

On the way home from the clinic, I remained very conservative with my speed. But I started getting really sleepy as I drove along the Interstate. I was shaking my head, had the A/C blowing cold air on my face, and was singing along with the radio...rather badly...but belting out the lyrics to keep myself awake. I decided to exit the Interstate early and take a road home that I don't normally travel, hoping the change of scenery would perk me up a bit.

Yep, you know where this is going.

I was unfamiliar with the road which happens to have quite a low speed limit for the type of road it is. I hadn't noticed a speed limit sign and I wasn't paying attention to my speed when I crested the top of a hill and there he was; a sneaky Sheriff Deputy sitting on the other side of the hill just waiting for someone like me to come over the top. Gasp! I looked in the rear view mirror and saw him do a quick U-turn in the road; I knew I was had.

I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 30 years and what are the chances I'd get pulled over the one rare time I forget my wallet and am driving without a license?

Fortunately, the officer was in a forgiving mood that day. He said, "Ma'am, there are several things I could write you up for, but I'm going to give you a break." He was very understanding about my wallet sitting next to my computer at home, and didn't penalize me for driving without a license. (Maybe his wife is an online shopper who forgets her wallet too.) He clocked me at 19 miles over the speed limit, but only wrote me up for 4 miles over the limit with ZERO points! That was a relief.

(In the United States, you can incur penalty points for exceeding the speed limit by 5 or more miles per hour, and for other traffic violations. The bigger the violation, the faster the speed, the more points you receive. Points are dreaded because the insurance companies will raise the cost of your auto insurance for a number of years. Not only do you have to pay a substantial fine for the violation, but you pay more for auto insurance for a long time.)

I was lucky, but the fine was still enough to put a damper on my plans to go back for another couple days of the Brannaman clinic. There is an auditing fee for each day of the clinic and my clinic funds were now redirected to government income.

My speeding ticket became a good reason to stay home and ride my own horse instead of watching others ride theirs.