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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ Mike and Ray's Bogus Journey

Posted by: Mike T Apr 10 2003, 09:19 PM

Last Sunday I was high bidder on a 283 V8 engine, recently rebuilt and supposedly in good running condition. The owner was in New York City, actually Inwood, NY on Long Island, about 3.5 hours away, so I decided to go get it instead of having it shipped. I took a good friend of mine who had never been to the City. We figured it would be an interesting road trip. We set out at 7:00AM this morning headed for Long Island.

I had 2 sets of directions, one from a friend and a turn by turn map from Mapquest. Didn't stop me from getting lost a 1/2 dozen times and what should have been a 3.5 hr trip took 5hrs. The Mapquest directions were useless.

We crossed the Tappan Zee bridge to get to the East side of the river. We don't see bridges that big in Brackney, pretty imposing span. I shot some pretty cool pictures and some video. Later we crossed to Long Island taking the Throgs Neck bridge. Another pretty neat sight. We shot more pics and video.

About 1/2 way across the Throgs Neck Bridge I noticed a NYPD car following me, sort of close, before I knew it his lights came on and I was pulled over at the end of the bridge. Speeding? Everybody was speeding... I got out my liscence and insurance card. He got to the window and asked me if we were taking pictures of the bridge? Huh? I said we had. He then said "this was not a good time to be taking pictures of Tunnels and Bridges" Real straight face, all business... Then he asked me for our cameras and camcorder! He told me he was calling a Supervisor and we had to wait and off he went back to his squad car and puts it on the hood. Evidence. I was stunned! Never considered that when we were taking pictures. Holy crap. I'm a suspected terrorist? Ray and I look at each other in, I don't know, disbelief I guess. About 20 mins later another car pulls up- the Supervisor. He doesn't want to confiscate or cameras or even film(digital) he just has us play back the tape and pics. I show him how to work the VCR and Ray runs through all his pics for the first cop. After they see we're just a couple of Goofs taking tourist shots they get friendlier. We left with the suggestion we take no more pics or video of Tunnels or Bridges.

Oh, yeah. I did get the engine. Looks good. Won't know any details until I open it up. I'm not quite as excited about it as I was though.

Mike T

Posted by: Brad Roberts Apr 10 2003, 09:33 PM

Times have changed.

The Terrorist's have won on a small level. They have removed some of our freedom's.

Glad to hear the 283 was good to go.

B

Posted by: GWN7 Apr 10 2003, 10:38 PM

Last time I used Mapquest, they said it was a 5 hour drive from here to the border. A distance of 60 miles Mabey they were taking into account the lineups and search time

Posted by: Mark Henry Apr 10 2003, 11:04 PM

In the early 90’s the wife and I were on vacation in Virginia Beach. We were driving around looking for something to do, suddenly I saw a naval base (Norwalk) and I whip in. The wife said what the hell are you doing and like a total dolt I say “lets find out if they have tours of the base”. Ah-ha-yep!

The guard at the gate looked at me like I was a goof. Looks at our license plate (Ontario), made a couple of phone calls, then walks back, hands me a piece of paper and says, “leave this on your dash at all times, if anyone asks say your at the chapel for a wedding and don’t blow up my base.” and waves me through. COOL!

We drove all over that frickin’ base taking pic’s of everything, while taking pic’s of a weird looking goose (yep) the thing bit me right on the dick. Filled up with cheap gas at the base store (PX or something) also bought a bug fuel pump for $10! COOL!

After we leave the wife reads the paper (pass) on the dash “no photographs” (whoops) “no explosives” I had enough fireworks to take out a navy destroyer in the truck.
Plus we only had permission to go to the chapel, that was less than half a block from the gate! DOH!

TRY TO GET AWAY WITH THAT SHIT TODAY!

Posted by: rick 918-S Apr 10 2003, 11:16 PM

Man what a story! Like B said, we lost some of the freedom we used to take for granted. At least we know the home security is at work. I'd like to shake those cops hands.

Posted by: brant Apr 11 2003, 08:47 AM

my in-laws are outside of the city and in a couple of visits in the last year and a half.. it seems that (especially) in NY.. they take this stuff pretty seriously..

good for the cops.. I mean I know it was a delay.. but good for the cops..

We were walking around my in-laws during a visit.. Walked down to the reservoir. Two correction officers with what appeared to be M-16's stop us.. The officers were friendly, but it was clear we could not and should not be walking around a water source.

brant

Posted by: Don Wohlfarth Apr 11 2003, 03:27 PM

Mike, certainly understand your feelings.
OTOH Rich and I are on the same page, like to shake that cop's hand.
There was a article in the Wash Post last week about a columnist that saw something sticking out of the ground at the Jefferson Memorial. He started taking pictures of this device. A cop came over and asked what he was doing. Since this is DC he decided to exert his rights against self incrimination. Cop said no problem and asked for backup. 2 min later there were a dozen cops with assorted hardware. About this time the lights went on and the columnist realized the error of his ways. Turned out the thing sticking out of the ground was a instrument that measures air quality. Peaceful ending.
I live about 6 miles from the Pentagon. I'm just glad somebody's paying attention.

Posted by: Mike T Apr 11 2003, 04:59 PM

Just to clarify things, for a split second I couldn't process what the cop was saying to me. Then I saw the reasoning and actually do agree the cop was on the ball. I even told the Supervisor that I understood what they were doing and why they had to do it.

I in no way have any hard feelings for the officers or the job they were doing.

Mike (older, wiser) T.