Road Warrior

Hey hey hey I'm back. Man I love those three-day weekends!!

The Drive

Our excellent adventure began early Friday. I had the car all packed Thursday night and I rousted everyone up early so they could accompany me on my work rounds and then cinch the seat belts up as we were headed to the great city of Flagstaff, Arizona.

To prepare for the trip, for my birthday a few days back I asked for and received a radar detector to assist in our travels.

We are not talking any radar detector, we are talking an Escort which is rated in the top three out there.

You see I like to play and of late I've had to pay because my radar detector was not quite up to par.

It's easy to get talking or listening to the radio and accidentally go a few miles an hour over the speed limit which the highway patrol seems to take a dim view of.

The morning drop-offs are done, and now we are headed out of town through Boulder City and then across the grand Hoover Dam which is a slow go for sure.

Once across the dam and atop the hill on the other side, it was time to crack the whip and turn the horses loose.

I gradually bring the Denali up to cruising speed so as not to alarm the co-pilot or the already sleeping dog in the back seat.

I am confident in my new radar detector so I set the ol' cruise control, stretch out the legs, set the seat back to the relax mode, and begin our excellent adventure.

We are now at cruising speed when I look at my rear view mirror and I pick up on the fact that someone is about to pass me.

Well this is kewl because if he wants to be the rabbit and take the highway patrol radar first that is ok by me.

So armed with a rabbit leading and my trusty radar glued to the windshield I kick the cruise up from 85 to 90 so that, as I always tell my wife Vic, I can keep up with the flow of traffic.

Keeping up with the flow of traffic is the most important thing drivers need to do to prevent traffic jams.

Now I am relaxed, with one hand on the wheel, and one wrapped around my iced tea and as I am taking a long slow drink, out of the blue my new radar detector starts to scream.

I immediately go into the defensive mode as I apply the brakes hard enough to have smoke pouring off them even though the rabbit didn't even so much as hit his brakes.

One thing I had liked about this radar detector was the range it was advertised to have.

The bad thing is the K band that everyone says the highway patrol in the west doesn't use is used on all the construction signs so when in the area it sets off the detector.

The detector does have a feature that allows you to turn off the K band but I hadn't quite gotten to the complete details on how to turn it off as the book has at least 10 paperback sized pages to read.

Well wouldn't you know my alarm was one of those silly construction type signs.

So now not only have I abused my brakes, but I have lost sight of the rabbit.

Everyone knows that a good hound never gives up and it is time for this old hound to find that rabbit.

With a renewed purpose I now must kick it up a notch so I gradually bring the trusty Denali back to the crushing speed of 90 and then ever so slowly ease it up to 100 to chase the rabbit down.

As I was trying to find the first rabbit and as my co-pilot was starting to fidget and send darting glances my way, I saw another rabbit in my rear view mirror.

When driving one has to use sound judgement and reasoning so in doing that, I realized I could back off 10 miles per hour, let the new rabbit catch up and as he went by I could kick it up 5. As I would point out once again, I'm just keeping up with the flow of traffic and the co-pilot would be happy because without being nagged at, I actually slowed down.

So now we are picking um up and putting them down. I began to once again relax and am sipping my iced tea when my co-pilot Vic casually says to me, "Do you see the highway patrol car?"


Not "COP COP COP!!!" but very calmly, "Do you see the highway patrol car?"


As I am in a full lock on the brakes and before I can ask where, I spot him in plain sight sitting in the median.

"What the heck kind of radar detector is this?" I exclaim as it was just as quiet as a mouse.

This is supposed to be one of the top three detectors in the world and it gave me no warning. I complain, "What a rip off."

Calmly my co-pilot asks, "Well do suppose maybe he didn't have his radar on?" Now I realize that was rational type thinking but my response was "Well that is stupid. Why not? How else will my shiny new detector alert me that he is lurking if he doesn't have his stupid radar on? How fair is that?"

The rabbit and I once again slowly creep up to cruising speed and life was good until we reached Kingman and the rabbit went one way and we went the other.

From Kingman to Flagstaff we were the rabbit so I backed it off a notch to 85 and picked up quite a few followers along the way.

Between those two towns the highway patrol did in fact have their radar guns on as we slowed on several occasions and found the new radar detector did in fact work just fine.

I did learn one thing though and that is it is a good thing I did not read the book and disarm the K band as that is the only band that I got radar hits from in Arizona.

And as we entered the great city of Flagstaff, I sighed a great sigh of relief that my birthday present had lived up to its reputation. And at least on this great adventure, I did not have a mandatory visit with the Arizona Highway Patrol.

My co-pilot seemed at ease with the leisurely drive and my sleeping dog bounced up and opened her back seat window to inhale the fresh air and smells of the tree lined city.

Another excellent adventure with a little help from a good radar detector.

Thank you for visiting. Come back tomorrow for much to-do about nothing!!