T R A V E L W R I T I N G D A Y
Friday, August 20, 2004

After pulling away from my parking spot and traveling a few blocks, I look in my rear view mirror and see 2 police cars. With roof-top lights ablaze, they motion me to pull over. You HAVE to be kidding me! The paranoid minion called the police on me!

I pull over obediently. The officer walks up to the window and quickly announces I've been pulled over because they've received a complaint about a strange van parking in their neighborhood. I give him my travel business card and explain my mode of operation, blah, blah, blah. When I finish my little spiel the officer states, "There have been problems with people using other folk's wireless connections to surf child pornography." What? Is this guy insinuating I was doing that? Jesus, what's next?

As he starts back to his patrol car I hear him say, "Yes, I -will- check out your site." Hmmmm, that has an unfriendly, familiar ring to it.

While I wait for my website to clear my good name, I look in the passenger side view mirror and notice another officer peering at me from the back of the van, making sure I didn't pull a gun I suppose. I didn't take a picture fearing Rapid City's finest might mistake my camera for a gun and... well you get the picture (and I didn't get the picture, LOL).

5 minutes pass by and I'm still left waiting. I start to get a little worried, wondering if they're going to confiscate my laptop for inspection. Doing so could tie it up for days if they need to send it out somewhere. And I'd be stuck here in Rapid City, SD waiting for it, not an exciting prospect.

After about 10 minutes of waiting (what are they doing?) the officer comes back and hands me my license. He then asks when will I be leaving town. Well that's a nice thing to ask. Hmmmm, wonder if I'll ever come back to Rapid City, SD. Ummmmm, never, or so I thought.

I tell him my original plan was to leave early in the afternoon but because my travel writing took longer than expected, I changed them to stay another night. But I offer to leave town ASAP but they backed-off, telling me it's okay for me to stay (oh geeze, thanks) but I have to park in a different neighborhood.

I really don't have anything against the police, they're just doing their job. I just hate being the focus of their attention unnecessarily. The end result is always positive, they let me go, it's just the journey that can be somewhat unpleasant.