Guerrero
12-18-2017, 11:09 AM
Many years ago, when Guerrera and I were either newly-married, or soon-to-be-married, we were invited by my in-laws to drive with the to Florida for Christmas vacation. My in-laws owned a conversion van, so we all dive together in one vehicle, and I had made this trip before. This particular year, however, the old van decided to die, and one day before our departure, my father-in-law bought a new van. Needless to say, we spent a good chunk of the drive from Wisconsin to Florida just figuring out how all the bells and whistles in the van worked. About Indianapolis, however, we ran into a white-out condition snow storm. We were able to crawl our way through the snow by tail-gating a snow-plow/salt-spreader truck.
By the time we reached our Florida destination, it was night, and we had been driving for 24 hour straight. We were in the process of looking for our lodgings when a cop car turns on its lights and pulls us over. My FIL was driving and greets the deputy, thankful that (this time, at least) he wasn't speeding. The deputy shines his light on all of us inside of the van and informs my FIL that he was driving without his lights, and the officer could not read our license plate. FIL is clearly befuddled as his headlights are on. Cop says that, in that area, gang members would drive without lights and use their lights to signal each other.
FIL informs the deputy that we just purchased the van two days ago and we had driven down from Wisconsin. He figures out on the spot that he was driving with only the running lights and not the actual headlights, flips the lights on and smiles in a "See, all good!" kind of way. Cop's eyes narrow and he says that he was inclined to believe us as FIL had a Wisconsin driver's license, and the fact that the black van was completely covered in road-salt, which was practically unknown in Florida. Cop lets us go with a verbal warning to make sure we drive with our lights on.
The next day, it's Christmas day, and we have no where to go, and no food for Christmas dinner. Of course, just like in "A Christmas Story," the only place open is a Chinese buffet. Our family sits down to a Chinese Christmas lunch, and who should walk in but a bunch of deputies on their lunch break, including the one who pulled us over. Deputy sees us (as the restaurant is empty other then us and another sad-sack vacationing family), walks over to us, taps our table, nods, and says, "Now I *know* you're telling the truth."
Merry Christmas to all our brothers on the Thin Blue Line.
By the time we reached our Florida destination, it was night, and we had been driving for 24 hour straight. We were in the process of looking for our lodgings when a cop car turns on its lights and pulls us over. My FIL was driving and greets the deputy, thankful that (this time, at least) he wasn't speeding. The deputy shines his light on all of us inside of the van and informs my FIL that he was driving without his lights, and the officer could not read our license plate. FIL is clearly befuddled as his headlights are on. Cop says that, in that area, gang members would drive without lights and use their lights to signal each other.
FIL informs the deputy that we just purchased the van two days ago and we had driven down from Wisconsin. He figures out on the spot that he was driving with only the running lights and not the actual headlights, flips the lights on and smiles in a "See, all good!" kind of way. Cop's eyes narrow and he says that he was inclined to believe us as FIL had a Wisconsin driver's license, and the fact that the black van was completely covered in road-salt, which was practically unknown in Florida. Cop lets us go with a verbal warning to make sure we drive with our lights on.
The next day, it's Christmas day, and we have no where to go, and no food for Christmas dinner. Of course, just like in "A Christmas Story," the only place open is a Chinese buffet. Our family sits down to a Chinese Christmas lunch, and who should walk in but a bunch of deputies on their lunch break, including the one who pulled us over. Deputy sees us (as the restaurant is empty other then us and another sad-sack vacationing family), walks over to us, taps our table, nods, and says, "Now I *know* you're telling the truth."
Merry Christmas to all our brothers on the Thin Blue Line.