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Desert_Captain's avatar
Desert_Captain
Explorer III
Jun 05, 2014

Encounter with tbe Michigan Highway Patrol

Rolling north on I-94 northbound out of Indiana bound for Plainwell MI, heavy rain but light traffic. Potholes (as in large enough to swallow a VW), especially along the right lane where I travel at 58 mph in our 24' Class C.

I saw the MHP SUV hanging at my 7 but ignored his presence until all of those red and blue lights lit up. :E. A very young officer came up to our passenger window, we handed him my license and registraton and asked why we were stopped. He was very nice and said he saw me repeatedy swerve left crossing into the right edge of the middle (#2), lane.

I explained that I was dodging all, or at least trying to dodge as many of the serious potholes as possible but ONLY when the #2 lane was empty. He laughed and apologized on behalf of the state of Michigan. I could see you moving left and then back right but couldn't see the potholes when you did. I was afraid you were falling asleep.

Naturally he ran my license, came up clean. chatted a couple of minutes about where we were headed, suggested the UP and wished us well. We urged him to be carefull and safe and drove off.

He looked sooo young, pehaps 23 or 24, my bride thought he was cute, but the whole time he stood at our C's passenger door I could see his partner, right hand resting on the butt of his pistol standing at the right, rear corner of the coach. Nice to see that they are cautious AND corteous.
:C

38 Replies

  • I'm impressed you made it off our crappy Indiana roads without a blow out. Our Governor should be ashamed.
  • JiminDenver,

    Bishop Airport in Flint is on the southwest side so luckily you wont have to go thru Flint as it's not a nice or safe place anymore.

    I don't know where you are flying in from etc but there's Lansing Capitol Airport or the 2nd largest airport in the state at Grand Rapids - GR Ford International. Direct flights from GR all over the U.S. including to Denver on United, United Express and Southwest.
  • travelnutz wrote:
    Didn't know I-94 was in that bad of shape with large potholes and thanks to you, we'll avoid it. I-96, I-196, I-75, and I-69 and quite smooth and don't have potholes as we have traveled all of them in the last about 2 months. Haven't been on I-94 for the last couple years as it's a madhouse trucking link between Chicago and Detroit areas and we live 75 miles north of it.

    Lots of roadwork going on in the S.E. (Detroit area) part of the state and the 4 lane and 2 lane highways that aren't Interstates and most roads are quite good. Bet they are going to repave the bad area of I-94 this year then. I'll have to check the MDOT web site as it tells where all construction is or will be for each year.

    Glad your experience was a good one and the police (all agencies) do stop any vehicle here they see not being driven normally. Drunk or drugged drivers do some crazy stuff so the police cover each other as they should.

    Welcome and enjoy yourself!


    I need to make it home soon and usually drive up from Detroit. Might be worth it to fly into Flint instead.
  • I have the deepest respect for the LEO's around the country. They are in constant danger just by being the Law. There are some bad eggs just like in any other organizations or society in general. If given the chance I would put myself in danger to help one. They do it for me 24/7. I'm ex-Military and I'm so thankful and appreciative for our Armed Forces of today.
  • Didn't know I-94 was in that bad of shape with large potholes and thanks to you, we'll avoid it. I-96, I-196, I-75, and I-69 and quite smooth and don't have potholes as we have traveled all of them in the last about 2 months. Haven't been on I-94 for the last couple years as it's a madhouse trucking link between Chicago and Detroit areas and we live 75 miles north of it.

    Lots of roadwork going on in the S.E. (Detroit area) part of the state and the 4 lane and 2 lane highways that aren't Interstates and most roads are quite good. Bet they are going to repave the bad area of I-94 this year then. I'll have to check the MDOT web site as it tells where all construction is or will be for each year.

    Glad your experience was a good one and the police (all agencies) do stop any vehicle here they see not being driven normally. Drunk or drugged drivers do some crazy stuff so the police cover each other as they should.

    Welcome and enjoy yourself!
  • Ha. WE drove from Toledo to the Keweenaw Peninsula today. Saw a few of them in the median. Worst problem we have is our front bumper looks like it was peppered from all the bugs we hit. Mosquitoes are heavy where we ended up (Hancock)
  • Welcome to Michigan and the pot holes get bigger as you head east towards Detroit. There are missing Toyota's and Kia's in some of those holes. Good thing you went up 131 to Plainwell. I have had all very good experience with our Michigan State Police even in the cases where I was wrong. Great people doing a tough job. Randu

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