"You Boys Had Best Just Move On" .....
Or so said the Police Officer.
In the comments to my post Thinking of My Buddy Steve Today, two of my brothers mentioned some Steve things that got my memory going & this was one of them.
Steve and I needed a roadtrip. Unfortunately, my motorcycle was tore up and out of commission. Being young and dumb and not adverse to unconventional thinking, we decided that we'd just double up on his bike and go.
So we loaded our camping shit in a big duffel bag, strapped in on his little Yamaha and we headed North to Michigan. No real destination in mind, we just figured we'd find the right place when we got there. What could go wrong?
We rode for several hours and stopped for lunch and a beer at a little Tavern on the main street of a little town. Well, as it usually seemed to go, 1 beer turned into 8-10 beers and several hours later we stumbled out the back door.
We saddled up and pulled out of the lot and up the ally to the main street to continue on our trek.
That's when things started going South instead.
Seems there was an annual event around this place called "Rodeo Days" and Steve and I were just lucky enough to be there for the big, kickoff parade.
And when we exited the ally onto Main street to head North, we landed right in the middle of the parade.
I think we were behind the High School Band but I'm not sure.
One of us probably should have noticed that the traffic was just a bit heavier and taking up both lanes in a one way pattern, but the Beer Navigation System was pretty well engaged by then and since all that traffic was going the direction we were wanting to go ...... Steve just fell right in like he belonged there. I was starting to freakout and Steve just said, "Wave Dumbass". So that's what I did.
People were waving back and smiling so it was all good as we rode along with the parade to the next block and exited the parade route, laughing like a couple of retards.
Unfortunately, there was a City Cop right there and our mirth was cut short when he pointed at us and told us to pull over.
Shit. Now I have this bad habit of laughing at inappropriate times and if anything qualified as an inappropriate time to be laughing uncontrollably it was when that Cop started chewing our asses.
Steve kept telling me to shut the hell up and that Cop was getting louder by the second and I just couldn't keep from laughing. I knew we were gonna go straight to jail and that this shit wasn't funny at all, but damn if I could help it.
About then the Cop says to Steve, "You boys had just better move on" and said, "Follow me" as he headed to his car. Since he hadn't even asked for our ID, I know Steve was thinking about ducking and running at the first chance when he told me to "Hang on". Not a good idea on a seriously overloaded 400cc Yamaha and I was hoping that somehow we were gonna get our asses out of this mess.
We fell in behind the Cop car and he led us down some side streets in a Northerly direction. I was thinking he was leading us right to the Jail as a convenience factor for him, but instead, he took us about 8 blocks right back to the road we wanted.
He stopped and came back and chewed our asses for a few more minutes and said something about " In 20 years never having to write a ticket for Parading without a permit". I started up laughing again as soon as he said that and he gave me one of those looks that meant "I am gonna kick your ass, Hippy" and that took care of anymore of the inappropriate laughter from me.
Having made his point with me, he looked at Steve and pointed North and said, to "Get the hell out of here and don't come back."
So that's what we did.
That was the first of two times that we were escorted out of town by the cops. I'll tell ya about the other time later.
