After traversing four states in one day, the odometer on my Jeep rolled past 3591. Thirty-three miles from our destination — Springfield, Illinois — I saw the red and blue flashers in the rear view mirror.

Welcome home to Illinois

BUSTED! I was willfully doing 80 in a 65 mph zone.

My twenty years without a traffic violation record was broken in, of all places, Morgan County, Illinois. Even the state trooper chuckled at the irony of that.