Star Wars Mania & Nosy Neighbors

Uncle Chuck is visiting us this weekend so that he can take Austin to see the latest installment of the 'Star Wars' saga. This exciting episode is entitled "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith". I am still not sure what a 'Sith' is but if you want to know, by all means look here: http://www.thesith.com/sith101.htm.

Austin is still enjoying the PW50 despite the apparent objections of one of our neighbors. Last Sunday I took him over to the construction site at the end of Sapphire Ridge Rd for about an hour's ride. Thirty minutes after we had put the bike away, 2 Prince William County cruisers pulled up to the construction site, got out and walked into the construction area. Some minuites later they returned to their car and stood around for a while talking. Tracy walked to the end of the street to see what was going on, and when she introduced herself as Tracy Clark, one of the cops said, "So you're the mother of Austin Clark?" We then found out that a neighbor had placed an anonymous call the police to report that Austin Clark, Austin Gallant, and an unidentified youngster on a 4-wheeler were "disturbing the Sunday peace" with their bikes. The cops waited for a while longer in hopes that the anonymous caller would identify themselves and when no one else approached them, they left.

An hour later, in a conversation with neighbors about the whole affair, Tracy said that she had already talked to someone on the construction site and had received permission for Austin to ride there, providing he stayed out of the worker's way. Armed with this new knowledge, I placed a call the County police, asking for the Officers to return for a second discussion. They opted to call instead and the story had changed in the interim. They indicated that they were called out on a trespassing charge from an anonymous tip. The reason that they walked into the construction site was an attempt to find someone who worked there, but the workers were done for the day. When I told them that I had received permission from the site to ride there, they said that if it was OK with the landowner, it was OK with them. Interestingly, they said this time around that a 'disturbing the peace' call had not been made. They also pointed out that whoever called said that Austin had been riding on the road. This is true, and to avoid any trouble, he is now walking the bike when on a street.

Somewhere in my neighborood I have a person so upset by the bikes that they will place a call to the police, but not so upset as to identify themselves. Their identity remains a secret.

I sat Austin down and let him know what had happened. I also had a long discussion with him about the fact that there are a lot of people in this country who simply don't like motorcycles and can't accept the fact that not everyone agrees with them. There are narrow-minded people everywhere and unfortunately one of them lives near us.