My First Ride in a Cop Car

1. Drive towards the gate you have been using throughout the entire day.

2. Observe that it seems to be closed—its dark and there appear to barriers blocking the entrance.

3. Rationalize that this is probably only because the army doesn’t want more people coming in. Surely, you can still leave.

. 4. Ignore warning signs and press forward.

5. Stop before hitting the barriers that block all traffic.

6. Flip a U-turn and head back inside the base to look for another gate.

**Warning—Spike strips are commonplace on military bases. They’re not just in movies. Or Cops.

We tried to convince ourselves that the shiny metal glinting in the rearview was really just a cool looking speed bump but when we opened the doors the “pssss” of tires and rapid sinking of the car said otherwise.

Since we’re in Germany and apparently 911 doesn’t work (in all fairness neither does our phone) we had to walk the mile back to the hotel to call the military police. One ticket and three new tires later we were grateful to be on our way back to Mannheim.

We thought we were in the clear—what tire is going to go flat after just being replaced? More importantly who has that kind of luck? We do. One of the new tires popped somewhere on the Autobahn and there we were stranded on the side of the road waiting for 3 hours for a German tow truck. The good news is we got to take a detour and see the coolest German town and eventually, we made it safely back to Mannheim—after replacing 5 tires.