magical memories - nice car, dude

This is a different kind of "magical memories" entry in that it wasn't something that happened to me but rather, something I witnessed. This happened a long time ago, but I still think about it periodically, and it *still* just really amuses me.

So I've mentioned that I went to college at Cal (that would be the University of California at Berkeley), so once I got a car, I would drive back and forth a couple times during the year (start of school in August, Christmas/semester break, end of school in May) instead of flying, which is what I'd done previously. Highway 5 northbound is B.O.R.I.N.G. There's really nothing to see (except for the other cars similarly packed to the gills with other students making the afternoon drive to college), and the road is pretty much straight all the way. There was just regular radio, so I was at the mercy of whatever stations were along the way, and let me tell you, there are a lot of stretches where there's really nothing to listen to. I didn't have a tape player in my car, so that was out, and this was way before CD players were in the car, much less things like iPods and such. And, they kind of frown upon reading books while you're driving the 5 if you're the one actually driving.

OK, so I mentioned that it's a boring drive, right? So, northbound and southbound have a divider in between, and each direction is a two-lane highway, and I'm in the right lane like a normal person (we won't get into the lame-ass people who drive 45 miles an hour in the left lane). I'm driving normal speed, just a little over the posted speed limit. And this guy in a bright red convertible goes flying past me in the left lane. OK, yeah, dude, your car can go 400 miles an hour, and you have a spiffy car, whatever. A couple minutes later, a Highway Patrol car races past me. Hmmmmm. A few minutes further down, I see the Highway Patrol car on the side of the road with said red convertible. Have a nice day, dude.

So I'm driving further along, and maybe 20 or 30 minutes later, the red convertible dude flies by me in the left lane again. And a couple minutes later, a Highway Patrol car goes by me - I don't know if it was actually the same one as earlier. And a few minutes later, Highway Patrol car and red convertible are on the side of the road again. Two speeding tickets, for going at excessive speed, in less than one hour. Have a *really* nice day, dude. If you're going to drive a "please give me a ticket, Mr. Police Officer" high-profile might-as-well-have-a-blinking-beacon-on-top car, you might not want to drive like a homicidal maniac. Twice.

And no, the red convertible didn't fly past me a third time.