A fellow traveler, traveling on business

My supervisor was in the car with me as we headed south on the interstate and he asked why I had “that thing on the windshield.” Knowing that he was a car guy too, I said, “It’s my Valentine Radar Locator; I don’t drive without it.”

“Been there, done that with those things,” he said. “They just make a lot of noise and never tell me much, they’re so busy with false alarms.”

We were late leaving the hotel, on a road unfamiliar to both of us, and were unsure of the speed limit. As I was explaining the arrows and numeric display, we got a brap that hung with us, the arrow indicating radar from the side. This continued for almost a minute, and since we couldn’t see any LEOs, he finally said, “See what I mean? Waste of money.”

Almost on cue, a State Trooper could be seen in the darkness, merging on to the interstate alongside us. I wondered, Was he there all along? We zoomed in on the navigation screen; sure enough, a highway ran parallel to the interstate, on which this officer surely must have been traveling before it fed into our traffic stream.

“Great catch, Greg! He’d have had us if you didn’t have that, what’s the name of it again?”

“Valentine, I said, “Valentine 1.”

He and his wife now each have a new V1 of their own.

Greg Jacobs
Cincinnati, OH