Small Town LEO

Great ride day with the Chief today.   Only four of us were planning to ride today, but this morning PC dropped out.. and and hour later, Jimmy dropped out.   Chief pulled up around 1000 hrs and we confirmed we were both still in.  Headed down the road, I quickly realized I should have worn a coat or a hoody; this long sleeve tee wasn't doing a lot for me.  Sixty-three deg and windy!  But, we were on 2 wheels, temps would be rising and we had about 175 miles of two lane roads ahead of us. It'd be a partly sunny 73 deg day by the end of it, but that damned wind!

We took the long way, finding lots of twisties on 1563, 275, 799 then 1799.  Eventually we dropped onto Hwy 80, headed East and got it up to about 79mph cruising the next 25 miles or so. We were headed to Big Sandy for grub and it was good as always. I opted for the mud bugs, Chief stuck to a good burger and James and his wife rolled in about an hour later via cage. They were in for mud bugs and shrimp.

After grub and refreshments and good conversation, time to roll!  Back onto 80 and we're cruising along at 75mph.   I reset my tip odometer so I don't miss my turn; exactly 12 miles ahead.  I must have looked down once too much because I've noticed the Chief started lagging back there, when I look over to the right and notice a black SUV that one would think was an unmarked Police Car.  I'm staring at it when I realize I can see the subdued Law Enforcement sticker on the side, and I as I turn my sight back to the road I see a stoplight way up ahead, but more importantly a speed limit sign of '45' that I'm about to pass.  F' !!!  I realize in an instant I missed a sign of the slowing speeds and it's .... too late.   As I'm downshifting like a madman, keeping off the brakes I see the Blue and Red lights behind me ...   about a hundred yards back now.  I just blew through a 45, 30 over.  Before the Light/Intersection there's an abandoned gas station so we immediately pull it over and shut it down.  Chief pulls up behind me and points out the obvious.  I missed a couple of signs. Crap.  I'm pulling off my gloves when the officer pulls up parallel to me with his window down.  He's giving me a hand motion to slow it down, and verbally tells me to slow it down.  Then, we get the question.  "Are you guys Vets?"  We both have a Combat Vet back-patch on our vests and respond "Yes Sir!"   We then get a "Thank you for for service.  Please slow it down."   A wave and he's off.   WOW.  We just met one of the country's finest, in a good mood, and from small town USA (hasn't normally gone well for me in the past in the small towns).  Chief and I are in disbelief that we just got saved from an expensive ticket.  Thank you Officer!   I had quickly muttered to him that I didn't see the sign that I must have missed and blew by .. but ...  he was going to let us move on even before I attempted my excuse. 

Thank you for our Service? No Sir; Thank You for yours.  We did our time. You are in the trenches every day, doing it now. 

God Bless Texas

His ride was similar to this.   I had my Go Pro on the first half. Too bad I took it off or I'd have captured it all