Day 12 - Busted! - Part 2

Day 12 - Monday, September 1  EVENING

Do I need any more drama for my book? How about adding fear of being arrested? Having my name and license called into the police department? 

I arrived at the BP station in Wellington, Ohio, and sent one of the boys into the Domino’s pizza shop to see if they had a wifi hotspot. My plan was to see if I could park there and upload on their wifi and then head on to Walmart if there was one nearby. 

Isaiah came back and told me that Domino’s didn’t have wifi, and he would check at the BP gas station. Upon asking them, he discovered they had it. I ran in and asked the man behind the till if he knew the best route to Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, since my GPS was telling me to go to Cleveland first and then down to Pennsylvania! I hoped there was a more easterly route. 

The guy was ever so helpful, and I saw that I could probably take another route than I was being told. I then asked him if it was possible to stop at his gas station for the night, since I was worried about taking the kids on the road further when I didn’t know where Walmart was, and I didn’t really like driving in the night. He said, sure, and I could park on the right side of the building. He told me that a Grand Am had been there for the last four days, and so it was no problem. I jumped back in the van and prepared to park there when I saw that there was no way to get myself there as both ends had a car parked. Isaiah figured I could park myself out back on the wide back driveway that led to the drive-through. He was right. There was plenty of room, and I pulled right up tight to the fence and got settled. 

It was actually quite perfect! There was wifi from the Taco Bell and it reached to the parking lot, and I set up my computer outside and there was a warm breeze blowing. A perfect environment for writing a story! 

I quickly threw together a dinner for the kids, got on facebook and told my friend, Denise, who I am seeing tomorrow or the next day, that I am a little late due to our ridiculous day, and began uploading some photos. It was a wonderful way to finish a very long drive. 

All the children had eaten, and the boys had taken out the scooters and were riding up and down the back sidewalk. I had given them parametres of where they were allowed to go. I did not want them in vision of anyone working, or bothering any drive-through customers. 

All was well, and then my computer shut off. I had discovered the day before that if I ran the computer on the car battery without the car running that I only got so much time before the computer shut down. Unfortunately this happened after I had written, but before I had posted, so I lost my work and had to begin again. So today, after only being on the computer a short time the machine shut off, and I had to get into the van and run the engine and start again inside. I sent Song into the trailer to eat her dinner, so she did not get near the exhaust, and I set up the computer in the van. It was a short while after that that Song came to me and told me that a police officer looked at her. I told her to not worry about it and go eat her dinner. Not realizing he was looking *at* her and not just driving by. He was literally standing by her with his cruiser parked behind me.

He was there because of us. She said to me, “No, he is looking at me,” and so I knew I had a problem. I told her to go to the caravan and get inside. I opened the door for her, and she got in, and meanwhile, inside, Ayana told Israel to get down because she heard the police officer asking me my name and why I was parked there. She didn’t want ‘to make it obvious that there were a whole bunch of kids in the trailer’. Smart kid. She has lived through a little too much and gained too much knowledge!

I have to say, when I walked out to meet the officer, I was a little nervous. I knew I was doing no wrong, but at the same time, I was in a foreign country, and who knows what laws I might be breaking without knowing it!

I answered all his questions, and then when he asked me why I stopped there for the night, and I was finding my words hard to gather, due to stress overload, I am sure, I volunteered that I was a little scared. He showed great sympathy, and told me it was okay. He had been called, he said, by the owner, because we were blocking the driveway. I explained that I had been given permission by the same person, and he showed surprise. He said he would go inside and talk to them. 

First though, he got my information, and politely said he had to ask, “I know it is a strange question, but I have to ask: “Are these all your children?” 

I was able to say that yes, they were mine, and I had three more at home, and in my traumatized brain, I had the savvy to tell him the names of the ones at home. Either I was very well rehearsed or truthful.

He then asked me if I had passports, and and I easily replied, “Of course,” to which he said, “Yes, you must to get into the country.” He asked me for my driver’s license. As he did this, I thought of all the things he might nail me on - simply because my brain was in FREAKOUT mode. 

He took my license, called into his walkie-talkie my license plate number, and then walked to the station to talk to the people inside. I moved into ‘get it done mode’, and whispered to the kids that we were taking down our camp site. I then gave simple orders: “We’re moving on!! Throw the deck chairs in the back. Put the extension cord away. Secure the inside of the caravan so nothing falls.”

I wanted to be as quick as possible, so that when he came back and found out I was not a criminal on the run, I could jump in the van and disappear quietly into the night. I whipped over to the van, and turned off my computer, and then began packing it up for travel. The kids worked silently, realizing the seriousness of it, and calmly put things back in the trailer, the dishes in the washing up tub, and then all solemnly climbed into the van and waited for further instruction.

When I had told the officer that I was quite scared, he was very kind, and realized quickly that unless I was lying (which he didn’t state) I was just a mum on a trip that didn’t want to drive her kids in the night and had found refuge at a store that allowed her to stop. 

He asked me how long I intended to stop, and I told him that after traveling for 11 days we were tired, and I had hoped to give the kids a day to relax before we traveled on. He then with clear compassion told me that he could guide me to a spot where we could safely park for the night if I promised to do as he said. It was clear he was bending a little rule to find me somewhere safe to sleep for the night.  It was a reservoir that people fished at, and we could stay for the night, but it was not for two days. He told me how to get to it, and said that if we took a left turn versus a right turn that we would end up in another park and would likely find ourselves arrested by the Metro police. Not something we wanted to encounter! 

This was a very considerate officer. Though he was professional, you could see that he wanted to take care of us. Obviously, he could see that if he turfed us off the BP parking lot, he was throwing us into the highway to drive until we found a suitable parking lot, so he came up with a better solution. As a second thought, he decided to escort us to the hidden spot. He got in his police cruiser and quickly led the way down a couple back streets and then asked us to park very straight, up under the street light. 

And then, he said, “I don’t think you are doing anything wrong, but I would feel terrible if I didn’t do my job, and something were to happen. Can I please have the children’s names and birth-dates.” 

I commended him and said I was glad he was that thorough, and gave him my children’s information, but not before telling the kids to keep their mouths quiet when I spoke, because I wanted to sail through this. I knew my girls had two birth-dates, but I also knew the one the government would have on file. After we were done and the officer had walked away, Isaiah informed me I made a mistake with Courage’s birthdate - it was 2003 and not 2002. Silly boy!! I think a mother knows!

When the officer had completed his information gathering, he said to me that if I wanted a day to relax that just up the street there was a state park with camping spots and a playground for the children. We could take a day there, unwind, let the children play, and camp next door if we wanted. What a wonderful example of a police officer. 

We set up camp in our new spot. Silent, except for the trains in the distance, and the millions of crickets. Another example of God’s provision and protection.
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