Adel Georgia SUCKS, and always will as far as I am concerned!

So last weekend my Niece and I made a trip to Athens Tennessee to meet her brother, my Nephew, to pick up her dog, Rogue. We picked a place that was half way and coincidently that was Athens, actually it was 510 miles for us and 504 miles for him. She has been staying with us for two months, she was boarding her puppy in Ohio and a few weeks prior, we made a deal about bringing her dog to Florida. Originally we said no, we have a dog and a cat so I did not want another dog, so she found a place to board her in Ohio. So, long story but we decided to try it out, to see if Newton and Rogue could get along. We discussed what was going to happen if the dogs could not get along, Rogue would have to be boarded here or make the trip back to Ohio to stay with the boarder there, who was giving her a hell of deal at 250 bucks a months. So after week one and only a few skirmishes I believe it will work out. It is as big an adjustment for Bride and me as it is for the dogs, Rogue is a big dog and we have a 40-pound dog and cats, small animals.



Anyway we were making the trip, we were to meet my Nephew on Sunday between noon and one oclock. We drove to Canton Ga. on Saturday and spent the evening with our good friends, thanks again guys. So even longer story the plans were modified EARLY Sunday morning and we ended up not meeting until 5pm, meaning the 8 hour trip back would put us in to Jacksonville between 1 and 2AM, way past my pillow drooling time. So we met at about 5pm and it was great to see my Nephew, it has been a long time since I had seen him last. We spent about 15 minutes at Tennessee exit 49 and then turned around and we were all on our way back to our points of origin. The trip for my Nephew was longer than it was for us, about 15 hours straight through, our trip was about 10, from Canton to Athens was about 2 and the trip back to Jacksonville was about 10.



So throughout the trip my Niece kept calling me an old man driver, even mentioning how slow I drive to my Nephew. I have not had a speeding ticket since 1984 so call me an old man driver all ya want is what I was thinking. So we are tooling down Interstate 75 south at 72 miles an hour, in the 70 mile an hour zone – I thought I was pushing the envelope here. That is the norm for me, a couple of miles over the posted speed limit and set the cruise and go, I am never in that big of a hurry. Well after an uneventful ride through Atlanta and for those who have been through there ya know that uneventful is good when there are 8 lanes of traffic, all haulin ass. We were cruising south of Macon and my Niece decided to doze off for a little bit. No worries I had a nap before 5pm and had a little shot of caffeine and Pink Floyd blaring from the stereo and all was right with the world. I am a HUGE Floyd fan, as is my Niece - she has Pink Floyd tattooed inside her lower lip if that is any indication for ya about her fan status of Pink Floyd. Her Ohio license plate is “PNKFLYD” so there can just be no mistaking what she feels about the band.



You will understand the importance of the Pink Floyd stuff here in a minute. So we are approaching Adel Georgia, a place that will, from this day forward and until I suck my last breath, be referred to by me as - Asshole Georgia. So the we are tooling along at 72 miles an hour and I am riding with 2 other cars and an SUV, a White Ford Mustang, a tan Toyota Camry and a blue Dodge Durango. I like to ride along with other cars when on the interstate, especially at night and I am not even sure exactly why but this situation qualified since it was 11:45pm. Well I passed a seventy mile an hour sign and within 100 yards there was a 50 mile an hour sign, no warnings of the reduced speed ahead or anything like that. There was something else sharing the night with us though, the 12 cop cars sitting right past the 50 mile an hour sign. BAM four of them peeled off the end of the line and one each pulled all four of us over. I remember being pissed, but have learned from experience and from watching Cops on TV that it is not wise to be a smart ass or show any righteous indignation towards the cops, they will pull you out and cuff ya while they search the car. So the cop comes up, I have the drivers side window open and all of the sudden he taps on the passenger window, since I was anticipating him coming to my window it scared me when he banged on the other window.



So he tells me the lead officer clocked me at 70 miles an hour in a 50 mile per hour zone and he needed to see my license, registration and proof of insurance. After giving him all the information, he heads back to his car, to look up any information on me and the car. He comes back with the ticket, explains that I can go to court in October or I could call the number on the back of the ticket and they will be able to tell me the cost. He also tells me that he is not going to write me up for speeding in the construction zone, I am a pretty mellow guy but I almost came unglued with that comment. This sanctimonious prick thought he was doing me a favor and thought I might be grateful for his kindness, fat chance! Again, with my tongue almost bitten through, I just sat in amazement but little did I know it was about to get worse. Come to find out this guy is also a Pink Floyd fan and wants to discuss the differences between the Pipers at the Gates of Dawn album and the Dark side of the Moon and what impact losing Syd Barrett may have had on that. Syd Barrett of course is the man who started the band in 1964 and Pipers was their first album. What nerve this guy had, I love to talk about Floyd but not to a man who just gave me what I would later find out is a $185.50 ticket. Well after taking my ticket and a good bye we started pulling away and we noticed that the guy in the Durango must not have watched the show Cops and must have said something stupid or was acting stupid because the cop that pulled him over had him behind the car and in cuffs. No idea what he did but I was glad it was not me.



So I understand that city budgets are tight everywhere, we in Jacksonville just had the millage on our property taxes raised, not even sure I understand what millage is but I know it means more freaking money that I do not have. I am sure Asshole Georgia is the same way but to have the cops, or have the city sponsor and operate such an obvious speed trap in an attempt to feed the city coffers is Bull Shit in my humble opinion. Maybe like Jacksonville we need to cut some crap from the budget instead of continuing to raise revenue, by whatever means. In our household budget we have no method by which to screw someone else out of their money so we have to cut, sometimes we have cut things that we do not want to cut BUT we cut them all the same. I think it is time our governments, local and otherwise start making the HARD decisions and cut the damn budgets and stop heaping the shortfalls upon us poor tax payers because we just do not have the money anymore!