A BRAIN TEASER

Q: If a truck leaves Toppenish, WA traveling at 55mph, and a car leaves Walla Walla, WA traveling at 65mph, at what point on the designated route down Highway 97 will they meet?

Talk amongst yourselves and discuss, but while you do that, I'll be happy to explain the answer below.

At approx 4pm on Friday afternoon, unbenownst to either of us, we took off at roughly the same time. From looking at the mapping program, I knew that Craig had about 70 miles less to travel to get to Highway 97 off of Interstate 84 in Biggs, OR. Logic tells me that at some point, I will catch up to him, after all, a passenger vehicle is allowed to travel much faster than an 18 wheeler.

We start our journey with the intention of Craig calling at each major city he passes during the night. We both knew it would be quite late when we finally met up, but it was worth the torture of driving so late, because one, that would be the only way for Craig to make his delivery on time Sunday morning in Vernon, CA, and two, I wanted to get some sleep before making the last leg of the journey to Modesto.

Craig calls from Biggs, and I am about 46 miles behind him. We both had to stop for a bathroom break there, so that was a wash, time wise. He then calls me about 60 miles down the road to warn me of thick heavy fog on the roadway. The timing couldn't have been better, as I thankfully settled in behind a big rig to let him be my beacon in the fog. Sure beat me trying to drive by white lines on the side of the road. By the time we hit clear visibility, there was quite a parade behind us.

Craig calls again from Madras, OR and I am about 36 miles behind him. I know from our previous conversations, that he would be taking a break at 11:45PM to close out his log page for the day and start a new one. I did my best to make up for the distance between us, and ...... ahem...... I think I must have been doing too good of a job as an Oregon State Trooper decided he wanted to stop me and have a little visit with me near Klamath Falls, OR.

Honestly, even after seeing sign after sign of 55MPH along Highway 97, I must have gotten caught up in knowing I was this close to catching up with Craig, or maybe it was the great radio station I found, or just maybe I was a wee bit tired and not paying attention, but I can tell you, those bright blue and red lights caught my attention real well, not to mention waking me from any tiredness I felt at the moment.

I have to say, even having been in law enforcement for 30 years, this had to be the nicest, friendliest Officer I have ever come across on a traffic stop. He walks up and introduces himself, and very nicely told me how fast I was going. Even in my sleep deprived mind I could do the math and I just knew I would get a ticket. So I explained that I was on my way to meet my husband, handed him my license, offered him the registration which he surprisingly didn't want and waited for him to run my name through wants and warrants.

He came back smiling again, reminding me what the speed limit was, (like I will ever forget that now), and even warned me of another officer further up the road who would be more than happy to stop me should I forget. With a smile, he handed me back my license and I was free to go. WHEW......Oh, I should tell you that while I was waiting for the officer to return to the pick up, Craig calls on the cell phone, telling me that he will be at the rest area on the California side taking that break. I had to tell him that I was being detained by the Oregon State Police. Between you and me, I think that kinda woke him up a bit too!

So back to the original question.......Now granted, Craig had to stop, but it took a little over 8 hours, with that aforementioned stop, to catch up to Craig and then follow him to the casino in Corning, CA where we were both happy to crawl into our beds and call it a night, or a day at 3:00am and get some sleep. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have to do that kind of a math problem again, or drive that late again, with or without the excitement of the blue and red lights!