{"id":707,"date":"2026-02-19T17:43:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/?p=707"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:44:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:44:25","slug":"usa-2024-part-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/usa-2024-part-26\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Part 26 – Cop encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Seward is about a couple of hours’ drive.
\u201cWe are not going to make it in time for dinner. Most places would have closed.\u201d
Our ETA was around 10:50 pm, and if we made it, we might be lucky and find some places that closed only at 11. Unfortunately, we discovered that many stretches of the road were under construction. And similar to the incident earlier while returning from Denali, you had cars lined up waiting for their turn to use the road – and over here we also had a \u2018pilot car\u2019 that we had to follow – sort of like the F1 races where you have the safety car come out. When that was on the track, you are not allowed to overtake anyone and have to stay at a speed lower than the safety car. There are two flaggers on either side of the construction zone, and they decide which lane is halted and which is allowed to move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The net result was that we reached Seward only at 11:10 pm, and most places had closed. I had snacked on the salmon burger and wasn\u2019t hungry, but our veggie boys had barely eaten anything. As you come down Seward Highway, it takes you to what appears to be Seward Downtown with a cluster of shops, restaurants and bars. There was the Flamingo Lounge, which we decided to check out. We also walked across the street to see if anything else was open – there were a couple of other bars, but they seemed much more inclined to drinks than to food. There were still a fair number of people inside the bars. We returned to Flamingo since it did have restaurant-type seating on one side. The first thing that struck us over here and in the other bars was that the setting gave you this old school vibe – like interiors similar to what may have existed in the 1970s and 80s. It felt cosy. The place was open till midnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dinner place<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There wasn\u2019t much to eat for the veggies – fried pickles (jalape\u00f1os), chips and potato fries. Raghav ordered all 3 dishes. For non-veggies, there was fish, pork and reindeer meat available – but again, everything was the fried type that was meant to be sides for drinks. Raghav also ordered an alcoholic cocktail drink, where he asked the bartender to substitute the alcohol! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stepped out at midnight, and Rakesh drove us in the direction of our next stay – a cabin in Seward. We had to go back up the Seward Highway. There weren\u2019t many vehicles or people out on the street at this hour, but as we were driving, we saw a cop\u2019s car in the opposite lane. As we went on, the cop\u2019s car turned around and followed us.\u00a0
\u201cSlow down,\u201d Moorthy said, and Rakesh pulled over. The cop was coming for us!
So the rule here is that you shouldn\u2019t step out of the car, but hand over your documents to the cop.\u00a0
\u201cWhere are you from?\u201d
\u201cComing from New Jersey,\u201d Rakesh said coolly.
\u201cGive all the rental documents and insurance.\u201d
Rakesh handed over the papers.
\u201cYour headlights were not on.\u201d
\u201cOh, it\u2019s a rental car, and I thought it had come on automatically. Didn\u2019t realise.\u201d
\u201cWhere are you coming from Seward?\u201d
\u201cUh\u2026 We were just here at the\u2026\u201d Moorthy tried to step in and answer, but the officer cut him off, \u201cQuestion was to him. Let him answer. He is responsible for his driving.\u201d
\u201cFrom Flamingo,\u201d Rakesh said.
\u201cWhat did you have?\u201d
Moorthy later said that this was a subtle way for them to figure out if you were driving after a drink.
\u201cWe were looking for some food. So just had some fries there.\u201d
\u201cWhere are you staying in Seward?\u201d
Rakesh gave the place of our Airbnb booking.
The officer did go back to his car to check something and then returned.
\u201cDo you know the speed limit here?\u201d
\u201cNo.\u201d
\u201cYou are driving without knowing the speed limit?\u201d
Wrong path to go down, and Rakesh quickly corrected himself, \u201cNo – I mean it\u2019s 25.\u201d
\u201cAnd do you know how fast you were driving?\u201d
\u201cI was slowing down to 30. Because I thought it was 35 earlier, and it was 25 in this area.\u201d
\u201cYou were going at 37. This is a residential area, and everywhere the speed limit is 25. It\u2019s 6 points for a speeding violation.\u201d
\u201cSorry. This was my first time, and I was reducing the speed.\u201d
After a brief moment, the officer said, \u201cI\u2019ll let you go with a warning for now. Get a good meal for your family and friends.\u201d
Fortunately, no fine, and Rakesh drove slowly, sticking to the 25 limit.\u00a0
\u201cI wasn\u2019t at 37. When I saw him on the other side itself, I had lowered my speed. But problem was that headlights weren\u2019t on.\u201d
With the new car, we struggled to figure out if the headlights were on or not – I even went through the car\u2019s booklet to understand how it worked, but it wasn\u2019t clear.
\u201cI don\u2019t think they will put a fine easily on visitors since they\u2019d want to be welcoming to tourists,\u201d Moorthy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


We reached our cabin area in a few minutes.
\u201cWhich one is it – there are two – the one on the right or the left?\u201d
We were on a road named Blying Sound Dr, and according to Google Maps, we had arrived at our location. We had a door number of 32280, but there were 2 individual cabins a few feet apart, both painted dark blue with red roofs.
\u201cNo signs of anyone present in either of the two.\u201d
There were no vehicles either, and both cabins looked identical. After going around both properties a couple of times with our flashlights on, we confirmed which one it was.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The stairs inside<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cabin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


It was a cabin with a second floor, where a couple of beds were stashed.
\u201cNice setup, but the stairs are narrow. Would be risky at night if someone stepped on it without paying attention.\u201d
And for me, there was a height problem on the 2nd floor – if I stood straight, my head knocked against the ceiling.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seward is about a couple of hours’ drive.\u201cWe are not going to make it in time for dinner. Most places would have closed.\u201dOur ETA was around 10:50 pm, and if we made it, we might be lucky and find some places that closed only at 11. Unfortunately, we discovered that many stretches of the road […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travelogue","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":711,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sstutor.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}