Scofflaws as Role Models

Posted by Kevin......

Stace thanked me for not giving her grief about being pulled over for speeding while taking Henry to school. I told her I would focus on the fact she was on her way to do a really nice thing for Henry's school. She had volunteered to chaperon a field trip (see stories below).

So as I sat on the side of Jefferson Rd. with a squad car parked behind me, it's lights a blaze, I though, "I CAN NOT tell Stace about this.

Jefferson Rd. was being paved. Actually, the FRONT LAWNS along Jefferson Rd. were being paved too. Jefferson was being significantly widened.

I had hoped for a name change too, since there are no fewer than four streets with the 4th president's name on all the corners.

You see, Jefferson Rd. is off of Jefferson Pkwy.

DO NOT confuse this with E. Jefferson Pkwy which is not physically connected with Jefferson Pkwy in any way. There are about half a dozen cornfields in between them.

Then there is Jefferson Dr.......which will take you to Jefferson Ln.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=northfield+mn&gs_upl=1093l5478l0l7554l12l12l2l4l6l0l281l1342l0.2.4l6l0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x87f653c36e566ca1:0x7acc799d75f938af,Northfield,+MN&gl=us&ei=yIt5ToDtE8eBgAeevMGqAQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBAQ8gEwAA

So now the officer is at my window and he asks me if I saw the ROAD CLOSED TO THROUGH TRAFFIC sign back on the corner of Jefferson and Jefferson. I told him I made a left from Jefferson onto Jefferson and was preoccupied by the other cars at the four way stop.

I said I followed a couple of cars down Jefferson and didn't realize I could not go through there.

I did NOT point out that he and I were, in fact, sitting at the far corner of Jefferson and therefore Jefferson was clearly OPEN to traffic that wanted to go THROUGH to the next available non-Jefferson road surface.

Did I mention that both boys are in the back of the car at this time. And Henry, God love him, is yelling, "Oh man, NOT AGAIN. AGAIN? NOT AGAIN!"

The officer was very nice and lectured me about how killing road workers would be traumatizing for all involved and I sincerely thank him for letting me off with a stern warning and I would never do anything wrong again.