Dec 21 - in the slammer !?!?

We left the cottage at 6:30 this morning, arriving at Philip's house at 7:15 p.m. There were two things that slowed us down, both 1/2 hour in duration. From east of Terrace Bay to west of Nipigon we went through a white-knuckle period of heavy snow and traffic. It was my fault though because before that I'd commented to Sandy that it had been a boring drive without weather or traffic ... so we immediately hit both.

Earlier in the day, shortly before we got to Espanola, we stopped to gas up and I used the restroom. After that there are some small towns and the speed limit varies up and down. As we approached one little town ... oh oh ... flashing lights behind me. I stopped and the police car stopped behind me. Darn, I must not have slowed down fast enough coming into one of those small towns. I got out my drivers license and insurance, preparing for the conversation with the officer. He took a long time coming, but finally did -- I rolled down the window and ...

-- Hi ... we had a report of fuel theft from a gas station
-- huh ? fuel theft ... but I put my Amex card into the pump card reader and then it told me to pump gas
-- did you get a receipt --
-- no, I never keep pump receipts
-- small talk from the officer, saying that he was going to be going to Florida shortly ...
-- would you mind going back, it's about 5 minutes out of your way and I'll follow you ...
-- no problem -- we pulled out and headed back

Well, it was 10-15 miles back as it turned out. I commented to Sandy along the way -- don't suppose that he'd give me a speeding ticket too, do you ?

As we got closer I was getting more agitated and called Amex -- they were quite apologetic but had no record of any charge or attempted charge. We (the two cops and I) went into the booth together -- the clerks were friendly -- as I told them that Amex had no record of the charge, why did the pump allow me to pump gas ? They were not sure -- it's not supposed to. Anyway, I paid, obviously, thanked the officers for giving me the benefit of the doubt -- and he commented that he hadn't figured that they would have to bring me in at gunpoint. They were quite friendly, everyone was amused ... hmmm.
Also, the clerks knew me because I'd come into the booth, asked about the restroom and they'd sent me to the restaurant on the property. It was cold -- -14F -- and I'd jogged over and the clerk said that they'd never seen anyone run to the restroom that quickly. They obviously thought that I was in a hurry and had forgotten to come back to the booth to pay.

Thinking about this later, I expect that when they called this into the police, they must have told them at that point that it looked like I'd forgotten, vs simply run off ... why else would I come in, hang around etc.

Moral of the story -- get a receipt ! If no receipt is offered by the pump, find out why !

Anyway, it was a good drive other than the spate of weather and that little backtracking !

Philip cooked -- a beef roast & salad to go with veggies and a dip. Meagan was there when we arrived; Olivia came later after she finished work for the day. Philip has a tree -- he's doing better than us, but then we were only going to be at the cottage for two days. Still, it's the first time that we haven't had a tree.

Tomorrow ... onward to Russell Manitoba. That drive is predicted to be 10 hours by the Garmin NAV. It will nice to have a "short" drive.