I am a 62-year-old grandfather who made my youngest grandchild his first "big boy" bed and drove down from Wisconsin to assemble it for him.

I left at 4 a.m. to endure this 18-hour drive through the bowels of Chicago/Indiana toll roads where traffic cut back and forth at 80 mph in and out of toll booth lanes and road construction.

More lane closures came up darned near the entire length of Indiana well into Kentucky, through the Appalachian mountains and into North Carolina. I stopped only for traffic jams, gas and rest breaks.

Late in the day, I finally made it onto U.S. 211 going into Pinehurst. Practically the only times during the entire trip the speed limit was less than 55 mph was near the gas stations. That is, of course, until I got to the "Circle" going into Pinehurst.

Coming off the highway and going around that circle twice, I was trying to read road signs in pitch blackness of night.

It was now 11 p.m. when all of a sudden the "trap" was sprung. Speed trap, of course, when one of the police officers clocked me at 53 mph. I learned that the speed limit is lowered to 35 mph for 200 yards outside the Circle to collect cash for the department.

Give me the Chicago cops any day. At least they don't lure you in for cheap tickets.

Thanks for the hospitality, Pinehurst!

Howard Keller

Mukwonago, Wisc.