Pellissippi Parkway ... again

odometer: 9,000 and ticking

Big ol Sigh. I already went on about how all the years I drove a Corvette, we're talking the mama of all american sports cars, with an engine bigger than I really know what to do with, and no tickets or accidents. The the Mini came along and wham-O. I've now decided I need to move out of Tennessee.

Tennessee is bad for my driving record. Today, I got my second speeding ticket, on the same dang highway! Pellissippi Parkway. grrrr. This time a State Trouper pulled me and another car over at the same time. One of those boxy honday things, an Element I think? Anyway, he tells me I was clocked at 81mph and the other car was going 82mph. I was the front car. Thing is, I know I was not going that fast because I have religiously set my cruise control to 1 mile below the speed limit after that first ticket. I do this on both highways that I drive. I know I have to just suck it up and pay this ticket, because really when it's my word against then police officer's ... I lose.

This I learned first hand froma court appearance with Bubba, when Murl tried to tell a judge he didn't do what the officer had written down. Murl had crossed a double yellow and totaled my Corvette ... The Judge said to ol Murl, "So what you're telling me, is this officer (who was standing between Bubba and Murl) is lying" Yeah Murl, go ahead and get out of that one.

Fortunately the construction is done on the section of Pellissippi that I drive, and the speed limit has been raised back up to 70MPH, so I'm told I was going 11 miles over the speed limit. That should be a huge ticket, but now I am starting to think about the points on my driver's license. It sucks.

It's bad enough to be given the ticket ... but why oh why does the Trooper have to add insult to injury by asking "So this is an 04 Mini Cooper? How do you like it?" I tell him I love it, but obviously need to learn to set my cruise control. Off I go, citation in hand.

Now on the brighter side, a few weeks ago another Mini appeared in the parking lot one day. Everyone asked me who owned it. I didn't know, and no one I know could figure it out. Today, I was taking a break out on the loading dock and up pulls the Red Mini. Turns out it's a loaner from Mini of Nashville for a promotion my company is doing. It will get a decal wrap put on it, to look like a giant shopping bag. It will be part of a store grand opening at the Riverchase Galleria in Birmingham, Alabama. Mystery solved! I'm glad he didn't really own it. It was sad to think that I no longer had the only Mini in the entire parking lot. :)