I drove my TR3A from Montreal and was camping about 20 miles south of Red
Wing, Minnesota for VTR in July 2002. It was dark - about 9:30 PM and I
quickly caught up to another car doing 60 in a 55 zone heading south on a
rural 2-lane highway. Then a few seconds later I saw these blazing lights
in my mirror and figured it was an SUV. After the next curve the lights
were no longer behind me so I figured he had turned off. There I was about
20 feet behind the car doing 60 looking for a straight section to zip out
and pass. Naturally, I was getting even closer to the the car ahead.
Then out of the black of night all these red and blue lights suddenly
snapped on in my mirror. He had been travelling behind me for about 1/2 a
mile without his lights on. I pulled over as did the car I was following.
He walked up beside me, looked down at me and asked for my papers. I asked
politely what was wrong. He told me I had been speeding - "at least 60
mph" - and driving too close. The car in front gingerly pulled back onto
the roadway and meekly disappeared into the darkness. He let him go, then I
figured I would get out of this one if he let the other driver go and he was
doing 60 as well. The trooper or sheriff asked where I was going. I told
him I was staying at Frontenac Campground about 15 miles further south. He
kept talking about driving too close. Then after he asked for my papers
again, he took them back to his SUV muttering something about Quebec, which
is where I come from. With his interior light on, I could see him on the
speaker talking to somone. Then he came back to me muttering that they
couldn't check with the computers in Quebec (or they couldn't read French)
and he told me not to speed or to drive too close again. Then he made a
U-turn and left.
Needess to say, I didn't mention or remind him that the reason I was driving
so closely at 60 mph was that I was just about to pull out and pass the car
in front when he flashed his blue and red lights back on. That time I guess
I was lucky. Or did he just want to check me out because I was "a
foreigner" and not from there ? Is 60 in a 55 zone excess speed ?
Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A
|