The night I almost spent in jail.

Saturday I drove to Rock Hill, SC to photograph a wedding. It ended about 10:30 and I was BEAT! I mean I felt like I was about to go into labor I was so tired. So I got in my car to start the two hour drive back. I called my sister on the phone to catch up, since it is rare that I am up past 10 and she lives in CA. We chatted then I realized that I had gone the wrong way on the highway. Then I turned around, very discouraged about the 2o minutes I had wasted. 3o minutes down the road, I realized that I had in fact gone the right way the first time, and was now 3o more minutes out of the way! I started crying and called Noah to look up if there were some back roads I could take from there so I didn't have to back track. He found some and I started on my way. In my head I was thinking, "Good, all these back roads! I'll go 20 over the speed limit and get home asap." After the second small town (I go the exact speed limit in small towns), I set my cruise control for 9 over and sat back to get in the zone. All of a sudden I have blue lights behind me, than a second set of blue lights, than a third set! They surrounded me and I was freaking out just a little. They came and started looking through my back windows with their flashlights...like I was a drug dealer or something.

He questioned me why I was in such a hurry and I told him I was sorry. I got lost on the way home from a wedding and I just wanted to go to sleep (displaying my pregnant belly did not occur to me at this point).

They took my license and registration. They came back and said, "Ma'am we are going to have to take you to jail. Your license expired a month ago, and in SC we put people in jail for that sort of thing."

*In between all this I suddenly realized that I was with child and had not cried yet...

The thought of spending the night in this small town...and in JAIL sent me over the edge and I started bawling. I grabbed my stomach and leaned back, making it obvious I was pregnant.

All of a sudden the policemen started freaking out and begging me to calm down. They said things like:

"Please, we don't want you to have that baby here."

"Please calm down. Don't get worked up."

"Don't worry ma'am we wont make you go to jail."

And they let me off the HOOK with just a warning!

They also gave me precise directions and details like, "When you go through such and such a town, there are a lot of deer so be careful." (all in a thick southern drawl)

Oh my word! I was shaking with fear as I drove away, and I had to take the remain back roads UNDER the speed limit.

Then, when I was 15 minutes from home, on the highway, when I was nearly asleep, a HUGE, white wolf ran in front of my car and I had to swerve to avoid a major wreck.

It took me thirty minutes to unwind from that car ride. I cannot believe that IF I WASN'T PREGNANT, I would have spent the night in JAIL!