Date: Fri, 30 Dec 94 16:53:42 CST
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   From: "Don Kane" <Don_Kane@qmgate.arc.nasa.gov>
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	   Reply to:   RE>cops and busses

   I haven't had a bus since '71 but I got stopped a few times in those days.    

       The first was in 1969 driving my '61 Bus (California plates)driving from
   Nashville to LA. My lights malfuntioned and a Oklahoma State trooper stopped
   me right around dusk and gave me a warning. He was very polite despite my long
   hair and told me to be careful of the Texas Troopers I was about to meet up
   with in a few miles. Needless to say I stopped for night before crossing
   Texas. I didn't get those lights fixed until I reached LA.
       The next year I had a '68 Bus (Tennessee plates)that I drove all over the
   country. but the only time I got stopped was on a trip from Florida to New
   York City. First I was stopped in S. Carolina for speeding. Again the cop
   (local police this time) was polite and didn't try to search my Van or person
   although I must have fit some profile or other. He was also kind enough to
   take my fine right there in cash rather than go to the trouble of showing up
   in court. How convenient.  Later in that trip I was stopped on the New Jersey
   turnpike which was infamous at the time for hassling longhairs, especially in
   Busses. I wasn't speeding or breaking any other laws, but I was still stopped.
   This time the Trooper searched my pockets and looked around inside the Van
   pretty well with his flashlight (it was about 2:00 AM) When I stopped a coke
   spilled that was sitting on the floor between the seats and He could see my
   wife and I scrambling around trying to clean it up, and probably thought we
   were trying to hide something. He accepted the coke story, since the evidence
   was all over the floor. Truth be told, We were scambling around trying to
   figure out where a small stash of substance was, so we could hide it. It was
   in the pocket of my wife's coat, and when the cop felt the pocket from the
   outside and started to look in it, my wife quickly said "oh, that's just my
   underwear" . Talk about quick thinking. It stopped the cop immediately and
   saved our butts. When the cop found out I played Bass for Eddy Arnold (for you
   younger folks, He was a kind of cityfied Country-Western star back in the 50's
   and 60's) and was heading for a two-week job at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC, He
   said "Well anybody who plays for Eddy Arnold can't be all bad" and let us go
   on our way. The worst part of it was that during the search our toll tiket
   must have blown out of the bus and we had to pay the maximum toll when we
   exited.
       Well, sorry for rambling, but there's not much to do here this afternoon,
   and I thought I'd get one post in this year after lurking for the last 4
   months.

   Don Kane
   Don_Kane@qmgate.arc.nasa.gov
   Network Manager, 
   NASA/AMES Research Center
   Mountain View , CA
   Recom Technologies, Inc.