Here’s another one of my tales of things I encountered in my travels on the way to a course.
So I land in Denver on early Friday evening, November 1st arriving two hours late after sitting in an airplane at the gate in Detroit because the plane taxied to the end of the runway, then circled back to the gate because the pilot wasn’t sure how much fuel we had. Yes…that’s the truth!
Anyway, after we landed, I picked up a rental car then immediately headed east on I-70 for 2 ½ hours to the little town of Goodland, Kansas where I had booked a hotel. The next morning I woke up early, showered, had a bite to eat and got on the road heading northeast toward McCook, Nebraska. And that’s when I experienced some things for the very first time.
I saw my first road runner ever, running down the middle of the road, you know, just his idea of having fun! I couldn’t resist. I just had to do it. You guessed it, two beeps on the horn. I never did see a coyote though!
The next thing I saw for the first time was a field full of round bales..but not of hay, rather corn stalks. Have never seen that before.
I also say my first oil pump, then saw a few more along the way.
Now keep in mind the one-way trip from Goodland, Kansas to McCook, Nebraska is 111 miles and I knew I’d likely see a few things I hadn’t seen before, but never would I have pictured the following. I’m driving along some back roads for quite awhile and then soon after I entered Nebraska, I turned due east onto a major two-lane highway. I drive about 5 miles without seeing a speed limit sign, so I’m not really sure how fast I can go. So I play it safe and drive at 60 mph. The next thing you know I come up behind a pure white car driving substantially slower than me. As I am about to pass, I take a closer look and I can see that it is an unmarked police car, so there’s no way I’m going to pass it now. But here’s the kicker…it was only going 45 miles per hour.
What does one do? Not wanting to pass, I back off and drop my speed. This is just temporary I assume. Five miles later, still at a snail’s pace I am starting to get frustrated. I have still not seen a speed limit sign and there’s no way I’m going to pass now, as the head games start to creep in. “Is he purposely trying to get me to pass so he can pull me over?” So I took the only action I could think of at the time. I pulled into the laneway of this large ranch, making it look like that’s where I was going all the time. I sat there for about two minutes, letting the police car get way down the road out of sight ahead of me and then I pulled back onto the highway and continued on my way. Surely to god that car has pulled off somewhere by now and as long as I kept a reasonable speed, I’m not going to get pulled over.
In less than 5 minutes I had caught up to the car once again and it was still maintaining that 45 mph speed. And yet, I had still not seen a speed limit sign in what was now about 15 miles. So I still didn’t feel confident passing this car. By now, I look in my rear view mirror and there are two more cars behind me and as the one immediately behind pulled out to pass, he too recognized the unmarked car and tucked back in behind me.
Three more miles pass and FINALLY a speed limit sign that says 65 mph. O.K. screw this I say to myself. I’m going for it. As I pull up alongside the cruiser I glance toward the driver seat expecting to see the wide grin of some buzz haired trooper. Nope! Behind the wheel was a white-haired little old lady who could barely see over the dash. I am NOT shi&%ing you! As the other two cars quickly follow and I could see the similar reaction of the driver immediately behind me as he glanced at the driver, it struck me that this was Nebraska’s idea of a “ghost car”. Sure worked!
