"Wasteland? You Mean Wonderland!"

As I drove further and further north, I saw an increase in the patches of snow on the north faces of hills and in little shady nooks and crannies. When I pulled into Breezewood, I saw a familiar sight: plowed snow piled in nice road-fencing lines. This morning, when I finally headed into the house, a light snow was drifting down with its gentle white flakes--the first snow I had seen at home in nearly two years! Also, it is the first time my Volvo has had snow on it while in my possession.
The remainder of my trip went very well yesterday, and between the time of my post and arriving back in Bedford (not quite at home, as I stopped at Wal-Mart for a while to get some work shoes) I did not stop at all--voluntarily, that is. I was on I-81 all the way from a little north of Knoxville, Tennessee to Winchester, Virginia. There, I decided to get off I-81 and take a shortcut on US-522, which was a more direct route from Winchester to Hancock, Maryland than continuing on I-81 and eventually getting on I-70. The shortcut worked quite well, except as I sped through the clear wintry night on the four lane divided highway with no posted speed limit, I glanced in my rearview mirror to see flashing blue and white lights closing in on me.
"Great," I thought sarcastically.
I pulled off as soon as I could, slipping off the road into a little rural gas station. The attendant probably was not too thrilled with the company, but it got me off the road. The trooper informed me he had clocked me at 76 in a 55 zone. That was not good. At all. Not that it made it any better for me, because I would have still been speeding, but I sincerely thought I was in a 65 area, and since the road was empty, I was zipping along nicely... Oh well. The officer, while professional and fairly blunt, was somewhat understanding. He asked if I had any reason to be going that fast, and I told him that I was heading home and I had not seen a posted limit. He thanked me for my honesty and ultimately was a little lenient. Basically, I do not have to go to court, which works out well, because the date is sometime in February, which is not practical in any sense.
One ticket in three and a half-plus years of driving. I do not want to blow it off, but really, I have been very blessed in the safety granted me on the road in all the thousands of miles I have driven--the majority of them by myself. My car now has 201,000+ miles on it, and it is still running strong!
"The end."