About 2 Hours Into Our Trip Back Home

Blue lights suddenly appeared in our rear view mirror and after we pulled over the police officer slowly and rather tentatively crept up around the passenger side of the car where I was seated. When we pulled over, I was turned around toward the backseat trying to get Simon back up on his perch inside his backpack that he had fallen from when Henri had slowed the car down rather quickly in order to stop. As I saw the officer approach, I realized he may be acting cautiously because he couldn't see what I was doing, so I pulled both of my hands up in front of me and looked up at him and let him know I had a bird in the backseat. He eyed me rather strangely and then asked for Henri's license, registration and insurance. Now I really felt bad that the officer may have been momentarily a little unsettled, so as Henri produced his license and registration and the officer just asked who our insurance company was I tried to lighten the mood a little bit and gave him a big smile and kind of sing-songy said "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." Mind you, I noted he did grin a little too when I told him that reciting that jingle is the only way I can ever remember it. So as he walked back to his cruiser, I discreetly took a picture through the mirror in my visor. I wasn't quite sure if it would have been inappropriate to turn around for the shot, but at the same time, I didn't want to miss out on an opportunity for a potential blog post. Now I'm glad I did, because of what happened next. After a few minutes he motioned for Henri to get out of the car and walk back to where he was standing behind us.




The first question he asked Henri was something about what was the origin of our trip. Henri said we had just left to head back home from a visit with our daughters and grand kids. The officer asked Henri if we had any drugs in the trunk. Henri told him we didn't. Then the officer asked if we had any marijuana. (I guess that was just in case Henri didn't think marijuana was a drug.) Henri asked "You mean because of my ponytail?" The officer said "No, of course not." Henri assured him that we didn't have any marijuana. Then the officer asked if we were carrying any firearms with us. Again Henri told him no. After all the questions, the officer handed Henri a warning and explained that he pulled us over because he thought that Henri had been driving a little erratically.




If you're a regular reader, I'm sure you've seen Henri's ponytail before and a favorite tie dyed shirt that he always seems to have on whenever I take a picture of him. (I promise you, he actually has two of these, so it's really not the same shirt you see each time.) Well, of course he just happened to be wearing it again when we were pulled over. And, yes he's also wearing an earring in his left ear too. So I can see how the officer may have gotten the impression that we were pot smoking hippie freaks.

But here's something that may have helped give the officer a wrong impression too. Well, if you're reading this blog our license plate is self explanatory, but the good officer may have taken this as a brazen message of a criminal driving a flashy car. (This is the part that I explain that our Mercedes is actually 11 years old and we bought it used from a relative that gave us a really good deal on it. But it has become Henri's minor little passion and he takes delight in keeping it all polished up just like it was new.)

After getting over our initial surprise of this entire incident, after it was all over we actually had a really good laugh about it. We have great respect for police officers and realized that this officer was just following up on something that maybe looked a little out of place. And, the officer even had an excuse for why Henri's driving may have been a little erratic. It was because of Simon.

We didn't have the heart to tell the officer that Simon flies about as good as a lead balloon though.

Sure, why not blame it on the bird? After all, he's a free bird too!