The Boot

I got my license on August 8^th 1995. In total I have been driving for 12 years. In those 12 years I’ve been pulled over twice. One of those times I was extremely lucky to have some one else travel by me going much faster so that just as the officer got off his motorcycle, he got right back on, pulled up along side of me (To tell me to slow down), and drove off after the other guy.

The other time I got pulled over I was a noise violation. My exhaust manifold was disconnected from my exhaust tail pipe. My truck would set off car alarms in parking lots simple by turning my truck on. The officer was nice enough to write me out a ticket and put my father’s name on it because my father was the sole proprietor of the truck (this would be my old truck…not my red one.)

In addition to NEVER getting a ticket, I have never been in a car accident that was my fault. I’m been rear-ended, side swiped, tapped, had a rock (about the size of my fist) hit my windshield, had a tire dent the side of my truck, and lastly fish-tailed my truck into one of those center divides that are on major freeways (by the way, those of you that question the BIG dent in the side of my truck – my dad did that by jack-knifing a u-haul trailer into the side of it). I have never even hit an animal or a jaywalker (though that is not to say I haven’t tried.). And lastly, unlike my brother, I have never purposely caused a stampede or scared livestock.

I am a good driver.

So imagine my surprise tonight. I took a friend of mine out for ice cream. After Ice cream was over (Which cost me a grand total of $1,67) I took her back to her apartment where we sat and talked for a while. We decided to go for a walk and we went out to my truck to get my sweatshirt. She lives at an apartment complex called Royal Crest. I would later find out that Royal Crest has a bad reputation for it’s parking administration. Sadly, I found out the hard way.

Attached to the front tire of my truck was a “boot.” For those of you that don’t know what a “boot” is, it is a C-clamp that clamps onto your front tire and can be locked. The clamp prevents you from driving any where (supposedly it tears of your tires, your rims, and your undercarriage.) – not that you would want to drive any where because if you do, there is a $500 fine for taking off with some security company’s security equipment.

How much do you think it would cost to get this taken off? Would you imagine $40? Yeah – neither would I. $40 for 30 minutes worth of parking. Not even San Francisco meter machines are that bad. But that is exactly what I got to pay tonight to have the boot taken off of my truck. Rachel has agreed to pay for our next Date and she promises it will be worth more than $40. She was very apologetic. I told her not to worry about it, but that to promise me to not let me park there ever again.

But for an Idaho adventure, this was definitely a first. I’ve never been booted. Not in Idaho or anywhere else for that matter.