Beginning the trail to Delicate Arch on Saturday
The reward at the end of the trail (that’s actually Jeff under the arch)
Thought I’d post a few pics from last weekend’s trip to Moab / Arches.
Other logs of the trip: Crazy Pills & Heeble’s.
First off, as an addendum to my last post where I knocked on wood about speeding and tickets? Hehehe… I got pulled over Friday night on my way down to Moab (as has been hinted at on comments in the previous post). Almost poetic justice.
So we’re driving through Price, and there are cops everywhere (must be a hoppin’ place on Friday nights). We’ve already seen a couple people pulled over. As far as I can tell, the speed limit is about 60 where we’re at, and I get stuck in the left lane behind someone going 45 or 50. Frustrated, I change lanes to get around the slow poke and speed up to about 60. Just a few seconds later I see police lights flashing in my rear view window.
Me: Am I getting pulled over?!
After some initial disbelief by those in the car thinking I couldn’t be getting pulled over, since I wasn’t going that fast
Me: I’m getting pulled over!
Cop: Do you know why I pulled you over?
Me: Uh, I can only guess I was speeding…
Cop: Nope, you passed on the right on a highway, which is a moving violation.
Me: Oh! (I sounded legitimately surprised and dumbfounded, like “huh?”– yeah I was clueless as to the law I had broken. Driver’s ed was so long ago…)
He was a pretty nice guy, he explained that the moving violation would normally have a fine of 82 dollars or something and it would count a couple (few?) points on my record. I gave him my license and registration, he said he just wanted to make sure it checked out and that he’d probably just give me a warning. So with a friendly reminder about passing on the right, he let me off the hook with just a verbal warning. Phew. When we asked him if there was anything we could do he inferred that brighting the slow poke wasn’t legal either and that the guy would have to be going slower than 45 in the left lane to be in violation of the law. What? Is brighting someone in front of you really illegal? Kinda sounds made up, but maybe I’m just ignorant.
It was just hilarious coming the same day that I had written up some rambling post about speeding and gloating that I hadn’t gotten a ticket in 10 years. So you’ve been warned– beware when driving through Price 😉
Moab was a great time. It felt like a really long weekend even though it was just a Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning we were just being lazy and talking about how we’d probably be half-acing it up the trail to Delicate Arch. Then came one of the best lines of the weekend, from Jeff. He said something to the effect of- “It’s the Sloan-Russell way: half-acing everything we do.” Hahaha… that still cracks me up.
Great time in Moab… made up for the crappy weather we had last time.
Comments
10 responses to “Moab II”
brighting someone is illegal? dang. how about flipping them off?
Freedom of expression, my friend 😉 Though I wonder what would happen if you flipped a cop off…
Your high beams are only allowed to be used when there are no cars around. It’s like hundreds of feet or something. Flipping off is technically okay I think unless you open the door or window to do it. But they cop could follow you if he wanted to and wait to catch you on some other stupid moving violation so it’s probably best to not do it.
http://driverlicense.utah.gov/pdf/dlhandbk.pdf
look at the handbook page 18. it looks to me like passing on the right isn’t a problem unless you leave the roadway to do it. i’ll investigate further, tho, and let you know what i find out.
http://www.livepublish.le.state.ut.us/lpBin22/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-j.htm&2.0
there’s the wording in the utah state code. if anything the operator of the vehicle in front of you was breaking the law by not yielding the lane to you.
and not for the easily offended:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipping_off
with some research, interestingly enough, flipping off could be considered “breach of the peace” or “disorderly conduct” in certain situations – mostly in courtrooms and council meetings and such. so although not against the law, it’s obviously highly stupid to flip off a cop. most likely they’ll pull you over for a good talking to or, as Joel pointed out, follow you till they find something wrong. i couldn’t find anything about being illegal if you roll down your window to do it, tho. anyone have a reference?
oops, try this for the passing on the right:
http://www.livepublish.le.state.ut.us/lpBin22/lpext.dll/InfobaseUtahCode/title08836.htm/chapter09093.htm/section09177.htm?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm&q=%5Bs%5D%5Brank,100%3A%5Bdomain%3A%5Band%3A%5Bstem%3A%5Band%3Apass%20right%5D%5D%5D%5D%5Bsum%3A%5Bstem%3Apass%20right%20%5D%5D%5D&x=Advanced&2.0#LPHit1
Hehehe… such resources.
Joel- you are a fountain of driving regulation knowledge. Thank you– I will remember not to be the jackass brighting slow people.
Heeble- our theory with all the cops is that they were bored and looking for things to do, and that the guy I passed was really just a pawn placed there by the cops so they’d have something to do when someone passed him.
I’ll tell you one thing that’s without a doubt illegal, and that’s when I was headed home from Moab, we were between Price and Springville on US-6 when the lane split into a left (passing) lane and a right lane. I’m accellerating when some woman in an Impalla goes racing ACROSS THE DOUBLE YELLOW LINE into the passing lane of the other side of the freeway to pass me. There was a cop headed the opposite direction and you better believe he flipped a U on the freeway and pulled that idiot’s trash over. I can’t imagine what kind of fine that would be, or if they’d suspend her license or what– so dangerous what she did. It was nice to see justice done on someone who really was driving wrecklessly.
yeah, did you pull off onto the shoulder to pass a car that was stopped waiting to turn left? i thought THAT was why passing on the right was illegal. were you in the right lane on a 4 lane highway? that’s re-freakin’-diculous. well, congrats on not getting the ticket.
There were 2 lanes of traffic on the road. It just seemed like going down any road locally so I didn’t think much off it. I wasn’t passing on the shoulder by any means.
Hey Mike, out of curiosity – that Impalla that passed you and got pulled over, had it been tailgating you as well before the lane split?