Lee Special - A Brush With The Law

(NB This post is chronologically out of order - we are somewhat behind on the non-Lee Special posts, but Sam - with my help - is valiantly trying to catch up) 

Heading North out of Roberts, Montana, yesterday we hit some straight, flat roads. Hitting the cruise control at 70mph, I settled back into my seat and prepared for the 100-mile journey to Hardin.

I soon became aware of some flashing lights in my rear view mirror. They were red and blue, attached to a shiny black truck. As soon as I realised, I slowed down and indicated to the right to allow the vehicle to pass.

He slowed down too.

I slowed further, as did he. "Oh", I said to Sam, "we're being pulled over". I knew I hadn't been speeding, I hadn't had a beer, and I had been driving immaculately - as ever* - so we perplexed as to what this was about.

In a bar - sometime, somewhere - we had been told how to approach this situation:

• pull over and stop as quickly as you can
• kill the engine and place the keys on top of your dash
• open both front windows fully
• place both hands on the top of the steering wheel

I duly did this, as the officer in the Carbon County Sheriff's vehicle slowly got out and approached Fin.

"Hi, I'm officer Blaine'", he said with a warm, wide smile. I responded in an appropriately friendly manner, in my best exaggerated Home Counties accent. He explained that he had pulled us over as we didn't have a front licence (number) plate, which was a legal requirement in Montana. I kinda shrugged and said this was a rental (hire) car from Florida.

Officer Blaine was fully understanding, humble and almost apologetic. He took my license back to his car to 'run' it. This took an uncomfortably long time, and my confidence started to take a bit of a hit.

He slowly got out of his vehicle and approached us again. "All okay, officer?" I said cheerily, hopefully masking my concern. "No problem at all, Sir. I do hope I haven't ruined your vacation?!"

We exchanged pleasantries and I gave him an elevator pitch of our travels. He seemed impressed, and wished us a safe and pleasant onward journey. Replacing his sunglasses and with the same broad grin, he sent us on our way.

* On two occasions, near the start of the road trip, my driving wasn't totally immaculate: once I found myself travelling the wrong way down a one-way street, and another time I didn't see a vehicle in my blind spot (despite Fin's blind spot mirrors) as I changed lane; luckily Sam was on the ball and screamed at me and disaster was avoided. Since then, I have been awesome.