uhgh this is worth taxing my remembering-stuff-powers to the limit bud
obv not including incidents where i was NOT in my bus
1st) legally boondocking in a park n ride between port Washington and grafton WI, at about 430 am. officer woke me up with his strobe. i said something like "hang on lemee put some pants on" in an irritatedly sleepy voice at which point the strobe became a spot light. lol for sure. anyway he got a call about "a bus that had been vandalized". after providing ID, title, insurance (i lied about having insurance, failure to provide ins. card is a 10 dollar ticket, failure to carry is.. more) at which point i told him it was a violation of my 4th amendment rights for him to even be in official contact with me, and he gave me my 10 dollar ticket and went away. i went back to sleep.
2nd) parked at an independent truck stop in johnsons creek wi (the diner is friggin phenomenal if your ever in the area) for... dude like awhile. more than 2 weeks - air line on top of the compressor had busted in the exact wrong spot and i was having trouble repairing it. sherriff would park right in front of us for an hour or so while watching me try to patch ****, never made contact. finally got it to hold, high 5'd my son, tested the brakes/pressure/etc, then he got out of his squad and told us to hit the road, really pretty friendly guy overall.
3rd) at what was probably a loves, but not for sure … ah yeah it was outside of Jacksonville fl, had been there for less than 48 hours. left the bus in our pickup to go fishing, came back to a hvy rotater truck - those ones that can tow busses - and 6, yes, six LEO's with their AR's and 12 ga's standing around my bus while the rotator eyeballed his positioning. well i parked the pickup with my wife, dog, and kids at the other end of the lot and strolled on over, walked right into the middle of em, leaned on the hood and said "if you want a tour so bad, all ya gotta do is ask" … well it turns out there had been some bit of unrelated ruckus inside while we were gone and they for whatever reason wanted to make sure all the rabble was cleared out, hence the tow truck. i drove away ticketless and fully unharrassed
4th) uh driving on … 94? 90? one of em between Wisconsin dells, wi and Mauston, wi when i passed two staties having a window-conference in the middle pullthru freeway thing and just as i passed them my youngest kid stood up, smacked her brother with a .. fishing rod? bamboo stick? i dunno they spar a lot and they saw it happen. so he followed us for maybe 5 or 6 miles, vehicularly sparring with my chase car/wife for a position on my bumper before lighting her up so she'd move then lighting me up. i pulled over, he checked my title, DL, Ins (same $10 game there
, then asked me about having all the required safety equipment on board. now this is about 45 minutes and 6 or 7 squad->bus->squad trips in to the stop. i'm in the drivers seat still, and 3 more squads have arrived behind him, my wife lit off toward the next exit after he jockey'd her out of her spot. I say to him, yeah. i got the drivers seatbelt, a fire extinguisher (always carry a fire extinguisher, one of my old rigs burnt down on the road, wasn't a bus.) and federal law doesn't require any type of restraint or safety equip. for the passenger compartment since busses are built to that standard already. he walked back to his squad, and 5 min later another officer comes up to the door. he says "you're gonna follow us. don't do anything else, just follow us." the 3 "add-on" squads speed off and the one who pulled me over, now with the other officer sitting shotgun, pulls in front of me on the shoulder.. they take off like a bat outta hell onto the freeway and i'm like oh **** - i can't go that fast, so i floor it and do my best, fortunately he realized what his mistake was and waited for me at the next offramp, where he led me into a pilot. the original officer then gave me a full vehicle inspection dot style, lights and whatnot, then wrote up a list of things i needed to change before being legal to operate in WI. i cited 4th amendment right to travel, which basically says if it's legal in one state it's legal in em all, unless specifically excluded by the us supreme court. now i gotta tell ya, this kid must've been just about ready to shoot me when i said that, his reply was "if i see you on the road again like this, you're going to jail. you're welcome for skipping the tow truck. have a nice day" hindsight 20/20 the constitutional law lecture probably wasn't a good call right then and there.
so... this is getting long. 5th, through 9th all involve me buying a parcel of land that was totally legal to park/habituate an RV on and said habituation upsetting the curmodgeony townsfolk. each time i was parked on my land, each time it was a LEO + building inspector or town council chair. each time they had been "bombarded" with calls and didn't really want to come out and were super cool (especially considering i wasn't doing anything wrong) with no result other than well wishes being exchanged between all sides.
10th was jus the other day, south of Wisconsin rapids. my oil pan blew out (see relevant thread in int drivetrain mechanical section of forum) and i was on the side of the road. sheriff stopped to make sure everyone was OK, didn't ask for ID or anything, and moved along without a hassle.
… apparently i'm known around Wisconsin. i'll update you all when appropriate hahaha
