So, for those of you who don't know, I was pulled over a couple of weeks ago for "Failure to Stop at a Stop Sign." As T., C. and I were driving through Paradise, UT, which is literally a one stop sign town, we missed the only stop sign there.

I don't mean we ran through it, I mean that it was so faded to white that we didn't see it at all.

So, yesterday was the magical "traffic court" day. I went in with the idea that we could pay for the ticket, but knew that I had a pretty good shot of beating it. First of all, the sign was faded to white. Second of all, and I can't stress this enough, we took pictures of the faded to white sign. Those pictures cost us $0.49 to develop. The ticket would have cost us $95, and would have put points on my driving record. Lastly, I had never driven through Paradise before, so I didn't know that there would magically be a stop sign on the highway. So, gathering up my evidence, I went to the county court for my appearance before the judge.

After going the the metal detector and finding the right courtroom, I noticed that there were a lot of people just waiting outside. I figured that this was my clue to wait outside, too. I was wrong. I should have just walked into the courtroom. But everything worked out. By the time I went inside, I had to meet with "the prosecutor."

I told him my story, and showed him the photographs. Oddly enough, he agreed. He said something along the lines of "let me see what I can do" and then turned to this giant book that was on the table next to him. I can only assume it was "Baby's First Book Of Traffic Laws." After only a few minutes, he said "Yup, I'm convinced. I'm going to throw this out. And we'll call someone about replacing that sign."

That is when the choirs of angels started singing.

I still had to wait for the judge to show up so that he could officially throw the case out, but half an hour after the whole thing was supposed to start, I was strolling out of the court without being any poorer than I already am.

Moral of the story: always be willing to take your wife to remote locations to take pictures. She will then have her camera with her to take pictures of the faded-to-white stop signs that you will inevitably run.