The Long Arm of the Law Saturday

Had a run in with the law today... very bizarre... I'm on a big highway, passed a cop on the side of the road with his flashing lights on... kept going... he pulled out to pull me over... did not know what I had done... was not speeding, had seatbelt on, no phone, no texting, no eating, no drinking, nothing... I immediately pull over... he asks me for license and registration... then he says, "Do you know why I stopped you?" Me: No.

He said, "Have you ever seen a deer that was hit by a car?" and I'm thinking did I miss a deer somewhere so I say yes. He says, "Do you understand that a car is a lethal weapon?" and he goes on like this... these roundabout questions... He asked me if I think a gun is a lethal weapon. I say yes. He asks me if I've ever fired a gun, and I said, "yes, once" (at a client's).  So he tells me there's a law called "Move Over America" law (I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!) that if an emergency vehicle, including a cop car, is on the side of the road, you are required to move over to the next lane. If you cannot safely move over, the law says you must reduce your speed by 10 mph.

This is me being pulled over. You can see the cop car in my rearview mirror.

What was sort of funny is that, when he came back to my car, talking to me via the passenger side open window, he told me to watch in my rearview mirror to see everyone obeying the law by moving over -- well, no one was... about 10 cars pass, not changing lanes, and he says, "there are a lot of lawbreakers out today" and I said, "Yes, and you got me."

I asked if this were just the law in Indiana, and he said "most states" and anyway it's my responsibility to know the laws if I'm driving. I was totally polite, agreed with him, etc.

I have never heard of this law. When he went back to his car, I'm thinking how would I have heard of this? I guess I missed it somehow. I bet in NYC there weren't many public service announcements like there may be in Indiana about the Move Over America law. So he comes back and gives me a warning paper, no ticket and then he wants to chat about this law, how dangerous it is for a cop to pull people over and stand by a highway and I said "Yes, I've seen the terrible videos on tv where officers get injured" blah blah.
I don't know if they were trying to educate the public or raise revenue. He thanked me for not arguing with him "as other drivers do" and I said, rightfully, that I should know the laws as he said. So I thanked him for giving me a warning instead of a ticket... and I was on my way again.

When we were chatting, sort of, I said that I am going to look this up on the Internet tonight (in a gee, i will educate myself way, not a challenging way) and he gave me the URL of

http://www.moveoveramerica.com/

I think I can be calm about this since I just got a warning so thank god I didn't have to call you to bail me out of jail. I was getting slightly worried over how long he took checking out my license. I was having this fantasy based on reality shows of him coming back and sayiing, "Mam, could you step out of the car, please?"

So do you guys know about this law? Did I miss something?

And now, some other photos from today. I started in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to Illinois, Indiana, had lunch in Michigan, to Ohio where I am now. Tomorrow it's on to Allentown, PA and then home Monday morning by noon. 

My official warning. My thumb is covering my last name.

Got off the Indiana tollroad to have lunch and found myself one minute past the tollbooth in Sturgis, Michigan. Here are two Amish carriages so I guess there's a community somewhere nearby.

I have a fascination with calling coke, ginger ale, etc "Pop." I know they do this in Ohio. In New York, it's always soda but there's something 1950ish about the word "pop."

I was tempted to try this place since I had never heard of it. It was drive-thru only so I couldn't judge by the parking lot. Decided against it and went to Taco Bell instead.



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Pretty clouds in Indiana.

Pretty clouds in Ohio

The view from the door to my room.