No one has "get pulled over by the cops" on their road trip bingo card — yet somehow it's happened to many of us.
The key, as Phoenix educator Carrie Deahl learned, is to not let it ruin the rest of the trip.
CARRIE DEAHL: With the Snake River winding next to Highway 89, we drove toward Grand Teton National Park. My partner and I noticed yellow rafts with people standing near them wearing orange life jackets gearing up for their day.
“We should do a river rafting trip!”
“I would love that,” she responded.
Our conversation was rudely interrupted by an all too familiar sound from the city: “Wee-oh, wee-oh, wee-oh.”
“Oh, crap! I think that’s a cop behind us.”
I turned on the blinker and pulled over. Shortly after, an officer appeared at my window.
“Do you know why I pulled you over today?”
Honestly, I had no idea! I had been driving the speed limit.
“No, sir, I do not.”
“You ran a stop sign at the Y-junction back there where you merged onto Highway 191.”
“Oh, did I?”
There was no way I was going to be able to talk my way out of this one. The stop sign was right there!
“I am sorry, officer. I didn’t see that stop sign.”
“I am going to issue you a citation. Please be careful."
He handed me my ticket and walked away.
“Thank you, sir,” I responded.
Did I really just thank the officer for a citation? Why would I do that?
I rolled up the window, and I lost my temper, blaming my partner for my mistake. I scanned the citation, noticing the name of the town we were in — Hoback Junction.
I didn’t even know Hoback Junction, Wyoming, existed. Of course I got a ticket in a small southwestern Wyoming town on the first day of our vacation!
I shoved the ticket in the glove compartment, rattling off a few choice words to my partner.
This was day one of a 19-day road trip through Wyoming and Montana, and I had imagined a smoother start.
After my tantrum, I merged back onto the highway and headed toward Grand Teton National Park, our first destination. Breathing the fresh air on the South Fork Cascade hiking trail as we careened around Jenny Lake, I regained my composure somewhere around the top of the falls and the vista overlooking the lake.
For the next 19 days, we traveled 3,600 miles through the Tetons, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks with only one citation. We ended up on that rafting trip we had imagined back in Hoback. We floated down the Flathead River, stopping for a steak lunch the guides prepared for us on the side of the river while an elk crossed it and a bald eagle flew above.
While hiking brought us closer to the land, the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park is the most stunning drive in the lower 48 I have traveled.
This was the country Teddy Roosevelt intended to protect, and for the first time in my life, I understood why.
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