USA 2016 part 15: Monday 21st November
This has always been one of my all-time favourite drives and this time in a Mustang. I had my son and his friend in the car with me and, about half way through the two-hour drive I was pulled over by a cop who was, I am sorry to say, unpleasant, bored and scary.
Picture the scene: the highway was almost empty, with very few cars in sight. On either side of the road was desert as far as the eye could see and, apart from a giant prison on the left-hand side driving north, no signs of life. And then the cop appeared, in a ludicrously oversized SUV (truck?) with lights rolling and hand on gun, totally unnecessary and over the top. Who could he possibly think we might be? Only in America. I had no idea why he stopped us, other than it was something to relieve the boredom out here in the desert, or perhaps he just wanted a bit of fun and couldn’t think of anything else to do.
It turned out that I was speeding – I believe slightly over the 55mph limit. On a dead straight desert road. With perfect visibility. And no other vehicles in sight. What the fuck?! He took a look at my British passport, walked around the car for a bit, crouched down to get a good look at the passengers. Thought for a bit. Walked around the car again, as if he was trying to think of some reason to cause us pain, then said “off you go”.
It was a weird experience and, as I said earlier, totally unnecessary. Or at least we thought so. Clearly he had a different outlook.
Anyway, I carried on up the I95 looking out for the truck stop that Rena and I spent an hour or so at 20 years before, but I couldn’t find it, so we stopped at a roadside brothel instead. Not really; we stopped at the Area 51 Alien Centre, with a brothel right next door, which I suspected was not for Vulcans. Klingons maybe, but definitely not Vulcans. Anyway, as a human-Vulcan hybrid I had my photo taken – just for the novelty you understand.
Colin Anderson 
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