In vacuuming out my car, I had little flashbacks to various trips I�ve made. It�s not like there was one piece of dirt that I looked at and immediatly thought, �Ohio!� But there was a tiny green stone mixed in with sand (it was likely sea glass) and that most likely came from the lighthouse tour in October. And then I thought of the July road trip to Chicago and points in between. It was a nice little near-the-end-of-the-year flashback on a relatively warm first day of winter.

And speaking of cars, Dave came close to smashing his into a Civic or losing it last night. As we entered a familiar �S� curve on a local road around 11 p.m., Dave downshifted which, for the four of us in the car, generally means Hold On. He accelerated into the turn, gliding left, when his radar detector blew up. Figuratively. But it did screech. Dave immediatlely hit the brakes, but not before glancing at his speedometer, which read 55 mph in the 40 mph zone. The as the car in the oncoming lane passed us, Dave�s headlights illuminated the incandescent �POLICE� on the side of the car.

In the back seat, Matt, Christy and Jess all turned to watch the 5-0. Dave continued to slow through the turn, bearing right just as a Civic -- or other similar car -- pulled out from a side street on our right and made a left, heading in the direction of the cop. �The cop just hit his brakes!� Christy said. �He�s coming back!� Matt added.

Dave hit his, too, making a hard right into another side street a little further down the road. He skidded a bit on the loose leaves at the intersection, fishtailing slightly, and then coasted down the lane. He cut his lights and pulled to the side, inching along slightly. We watched behind us as the police car, lights flashing, sped east down the main road, looking for us.

But another car turned onto the lane, and Dave pulled into the driveway of a dark house, still with his lights off. The moon was out and near full, however, so the chances of us eluding a cop looking for a silver BMW were slim, even with our lights out. The car -- an Explorer or other SUV of some sort -- continued past us, and Dave drove around the semicircular driveway (activating the motion-censored light by the front door) and back out onto the lane. He turned right, still away from the main road, thinking there was another sidestreet on the left that would allow us to continue east to Sea Bright, where we were meeting Jeremy and Elise at Ichabod�s.

There wasn�t; it was a dead end. So back to the main road, where Dave went left, the opposite direction, and circumvented the main road on which we�d been traveling. �We�re taking the long way around,� he declared. Minutes later, with the opportunity to make a left and avoid the bridge to Sea Bright all together by going through Highlands, Dave said, �We�re taking the real long way. He might be waiting for me at the bridge.� I assured him that even if he was waiting at the bridge, we�d be coming from a different direction and he wouldn�t be able to prove it was us anyway. With that, Dave removed his radar detector from the windshield.

But there was no dragnet, and we made it across the bridge without incident.

Dave drove home from the bar without breaking the speed limit.