Oh, Those Blue Lights...

[DDT (12)]

Oh, Those Blue Lights…
 
“Aw shucks, I reckon I’m about to receive a ‘Blue Light Special’ for sure. Kmart is long gone, of course, but the 'folks in blue' are still with us despite recent efforts by the know-it-alls to defund them. Oh well, I’m guilty as sin, so I’ll just take my medicine without any protest at all… Dang, and just when things had been going so well…”
 
We’d departed the motel early that morning a week or so ago, and we were really enjoying the cool temps and having the sun at our backs as we rode at a decent clip. Everything had been working in our favor, and the magic was freely flowing over us like a warm shower on a cold night. Then, talk about buzzkill!
 
Oh well, we’ve been getting away with a few indiscretions lately anyway, so it was simply time to pay the piper. There are no real shortcuts in the long run, ya know, as the law of averages will indeed eventually catch up with us.
 
We’d jumped up on I-40 to make our way westward through the treacherous gauntlet of Memphis, beyond the bottleneck of the Mississippi River and its limited bridge crossings, and then across the fertile but flat delta to some hills again.

Just when we were nearing the time to exit that lumpy stretch of super slab, everything had stopped! Dangitall, something had put a stopper in the hole and backed up vehicles for as far as the eye could see!!!
 
We’d just passed a sign for a Love’s Truckstop up ahead, and I was going to get off the slab there anyway to top-off, take a break, and return to a more tranquil route. Traffic moved at a pace so slow even a wounded snail would have struggled to manage.

First gear only with feet on the ground much more than on the floorboards… The engine fan cycling on and off to help prevent engine overheating, but… we couldn’t turn off the engine because of that ever so slight forward movement. I’ve just never managed to psych myself into finding any pleasure whatsoever with the ‘low crawl creep’…

There it was: That vacant emergency lane right there beside us… well… It didn’t take very long for the temptation to become too much for this impatient rider to resist, so… Yep, we did… We slipped over into that ‘Valk express lane’, shifted up to second then third gear, and proceeded to improve our lot considerably!

We must have gone a couple of miles, too, when I glanced in our girl’s mirror and spotted flashing blue lights coming up behind us… ‘Rut-roh’… We slipped into the space just in front of a big truck and back into the travel lane. The trooper rolled up beside us and inquired, “Are you ready to get a ticket?” Yessir…

We'd done that sort of thing before, of course, like most of us have... In all my travels, however, I'd only been pulled over once before for that particular infraction, but I'd only received a strong verbal chastisement and a warning. This time it could be more serious.

He mumbled something else, but I didn’t catch that. He pulled up, so I thought he’d wanted us to pull over behind him to receive my just desserts… Only, he didn’t stop!
 
Figuring at first that he was just pulling up to make sure he was well clear, I followed. With my not wanting to further antagonize him with a long walk, I continued to follow. In a bit, I could see up ahead of him more blue lights, so … “What’s this all about,” I wondered?

Am I being led towards an ambush that included the ‘swarm’ treatment? Will I soon be face-down on the pavement with a knee on the back of my neck and multiple pairs of hands groping and patting my body? Am I destined to become the poster-boy for an ‘Older Rider Lives Matter’ movement with my story being featured on national news? Nope…
 
The trooper pulled up behind another cruiser, exited his patrol SUV, donned his Smokey Bear hat, and then he walked back to me… "Here we go," I thought to myself. Before I could turn off the engine and put down the side stand, however, I got an entirely different read on things…
 
“What the Hell are you doing,” he asked in an excited forceful voice with arms outstretched… “I told you that you couldn’t drive in this lane! Get back in that travel lane…” Yessir… I did and he pivoted then trod off towards the other trooper investigating some fender bender boo-boo.

We just crept right on by all of that, at a very slow snail’s pace of course, and they paid us no further attention… Now, how about that, boys and girls? All that for not much! Heck, I’ve had worse ‘chewing-outs’ than that from a couple of dates I’ve been on…
 
Another mile of creeping along and around a little bend in the road. I could then see our exit up ahead… half a mile or so, but maybe half an hour or so at our glacial pace! I could no longer see anything in the shortened distance of emergency lane visible behind us now, though, so… Yep, I cheated yet again! Now I was really asking for it, but… We made it!
 
After that, the remainder of the day was back-to-normal wonderful! Naturally, we had to stop now and then to shed a layer or two as we proceeded, and as the sun reached then passed its zenith. Strange, but I was so filled with relief that I even enjoyed pulling over and performing that necessary chore.

Funny about perspective… What might be mildly annoying under some circumstances can seem a genuine pleasure under others… Such is the mystery and magic of the open road…
 
DDT (12)

Disclaimer: No snails were killed, injured, or otherwise harmed during the making of this adventure or its subsequent write-up. A few bugs, however, did not fare so well...

[Valker]

 

[f6john]

I’m a frequent flyer on the motorcycle express lane when things become a parking lot elsewhere. It’s a no brainer to me. I’m sure a Leo will one day attempt to change my mind. I appreciate your exercise of common sense and expression of freedom both before an after your encounter with the officer!

[trout dude]

Dam Bruce was you taking pictures again lol Safe Travels

[Mooskee]

Contrast that with legally splitting lanes in California. I worked out there for a year. You could cut 45 minutes off a trip up towards LA by splitting lanes. I did it rather cautiously, waiting for spaces where I could sort of zig zag between the cars utilizing the open spaces between the cars. However it was not uncommon at all to see some nut on a crotch rocket zipping strait up the line between two rows of cars that were practically standing still. These guys were going 30mph! All it takes is one car weaving a bit, and Oops.
They passed the law based on the argument that motorcycles were Air cooled, and would overheat in bumper to bumper traffic. As you know, so do motorcycle riders.

[Jess from VA]

Riding the breakdown lane in VA can get you a reckless driving 6 pointer (and BTW, at the officer's discretion, they can cuff and arrest you, take you to jail (where you can bail out), and tow your vehicle to impound).

I'll still do it, but only when it's a short haul to the next exit or turn (to leave the nasty backed up traffic behind), and when I can see no cops or lights.  Not around blind corners I won't.

We must have gone a couple of miles, too,
Going miles will get you the big ticket. 

Last week, I went up the (empty) opposing/oncoming lane (of a double yellow 2-lane), for about 150 yards (to a turn off), and damn quickly too.  My lane was dead stopped, and had been for some time.  That gets old.  If I wanted to sit on my bike in a parking lot, I would've got a Harley.   

Today, I got honked at for not going.  I suppose you all know this, but in a line of traffic, you NEVER EVER begin to roll across railroad tracks, until they are completely clear of traffic ahead, so you can completely cross them all at once.  This one was a wide three track crossing.  Mister, if you want to sit your car on those tracks with your whole family in the car, by all means pass me and be my guest.    Trains come through there all the time too.

[old2soon]

      Bruce I'm thinkin you wuz in Arkansas with tis K mart blue light special. And were it indeed Arkansas you Did DODGE i rather largish wallet hit! Ask me How I KNOW?  Glad yer doin what DDT 12 do! Sides it's only funny when it happens to any one of us. Happens to any one else and it becomes hilarious!  Happy ya made er thru unscathed My Fiend!  RIDE SAFE.

[Moonshot_1]

Sitting in Litchville illinois writing this tonight. On the way home from our annual vacation in Florida.

Left South Atlanta this morning (Sunday) and wife and I are heading up I-75.

We were somewhere between Atlanta and Chattanooga when traffic came to a halt and maybe an occasional slow roll for quite some time.

While it may sound inviting to take the breakdown lane, watching the LEOs screaming to attend the accident up ahead should quell any desire to do that.

We finally rolled up to the point of the accident. Apparently someone in the fast lane slowed down rapidly and the guy behind didn't, or the guy behind him and the guy behind him, guy behind him got sideswiped, just like the guy behind him, and on and on. I counted (wife was driving) at least 9 cars in serious states of disrepair in the median. 

When we got there there were about a dozen LEO's there. The medical guys weren't there yet.

Thing is you don't know what is up there stopping traffic. Could be not much of anything or death and mayhem. Give the pros the time to get there and sort it out.

[Chrisj CMA]

Ok, so…when I first got the cobra car, I wasn’t used to the minimal ass to ground clearance. I learned the lower to the road surface you are the faster it feels like you are going.

On one of my first drives I pulled onto a main road that was 55 mph but many do 60-65.

I feel the pull of first gear and take the rpms up a little higher. SO FUN. Then second and foot deeper on the accelerator, lots of wind now. Third gear is really tall and you get some serious speed because of that torque.

Getting ready for fourth gear and oh crap!  Those blue lights in the mirror. Instinctively I let off the gas and look at the Speedo to see how much trouble Im in.

As the sheriff flies past me after what he was really going after I see I was almost up to 50 mph.


lol