We crossed over the Arizona boarder past the town of Quartzsite, viewing this amazing sea of RV’s dotting the desert landscape. Quartzsite is like Burning Man for the elderly. Snow birds converge on this area for the winter in their elaborate RV’s and set up shop to sell to each other or to the tourists passing through.
We blazed the I-10 trail at a pretty good speed only to be pulled over by the highway patrol 35 miles outside of Phoenix. We thought we were being stopped for speeding but found out from the officer that our registration had expired and we did not know it. He wrote us up a citation and told Joe to call the court house in Buckeye in a week to take care of the matter after we paid our delinquent registration.
Investigating the problem of not receiving the notice to renew, Joe found that it was sent to our physical address in Pine Mountain and not our PO Box. The renewal notice was returned and we were never notified. Joe called the clerk in Buckeye and explained the situation. She told him to call the judge the following week. Now who would think you can just call up and talk to the judge? Anyway, this judge tells him that in Arizona it is a criminal offence, a misdemeanor, with up to $750 fine and or 4 months in jail. He asks him "How do you plea?” Joe was shocked and told him he didn't understand! The judge says, "Didn't you go to college?" So he said, "Well, it was a mistake. I am not guilty". So the judge told him that he would have to come to court on February 26th in Buckeye.
Buckeye is located 35 minutes west of Phoenix but it seems like it is in the middle of the Wild West desert. With as much preparation as possible and conferring with two attorneys in Phoenix, we set off on our journey on Wednesday to stay over so we could be fresh in front of the judge the next morning.
I decided to make lemonade out of lemons. As a photographer, I thought it would make it much more fun to document our trip and see what this Wild West town was about and write a story about it. So I did. I took photos of the town and Joe in front of the brick court house, which is situated in the middle of a cow pasture. Down the street is the Buckeye Meat slaughtering plant.
I must say our imaginations did run wild as to what could happen. We had visions of this judge (who did have on his mean face in the courtroom) sentencing Joe to jail just because he is from California. We checked in at the courthouse office and were told to enter the courtroom. The woman with a gun on her hip signed in Joe and told us to sit down and he would be called to talk to the prosecuting attorney. His name was Nick, a nice young man that was willing to work out a plea agreement. Joe was fined $300 by saying "I am responsible" when he stood before the judge. We ran out yelling, "We're free!"
We ran around town taking pictures. I stopped into the Buckeye Chamber of Commerce and met Deanna, a really nice lady who ran the joint. She confessed that she went to traffic court once and realized that everyone there was passing through at one time. Thus, passing through Buckeye is a major speed trap and of course other things. We have told this story to several people who all shared that they have gotten tickets driving through Arizona. So be very careful!
The lesson for all of us people in a mountain community is to make sure that you have all your important papers with your PO Box on it. Otherwise, who knows what could happen to you! It was a costly mistake with all the fines, hotel and gas but at least Joe is not in jail in Buckeye. I like lemonade… but not that much!
Motel across from the Buckeye Courthouse.
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