This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

We got as far as Moab the first day. It's only three hours from Sonny's house, but we kept having to stop for road kill and sparkly things.

I've come to dread the phrase, "What's that shiny thing way over there?" When he says that, nothing will do until we drive/hike/climb there to find out. Sonny should have been a raven or a crow.

By the time we finally arrived in Moab, it was late afternoon. While Sonny played with his new collection of sparklies and dead stuff in the motel room, I sought relatively normal company.

I called a distant cousin, UHP Lt. Scott Robertson, and asked if I could bum a ride with one of his troopers. After making me swear on the spirits of our common ancestors that I would behave, he put me with Trooper Brian Evans.

Scott: "This is Kirby from The Tribune. If he gets hurt or does something stupid, just leave him on the side of the road."

Brian: "Yes, boss."

Ten miles north of Moab, Brian turned around to stop a car traveling near 100 mph in the opposite direction. Even with the lights and siren, the vehicle didn't pull over for a couple of miles.

Brian didn't seem too excited by this failure to stop. He said the car was likely full of foreign nationals, people from distant countries where police stop violators by pulling in front of them instead of behind. They don't know how to behave around American police.

He was right. When the car finally pulled over, the occupants were from Texas. The driver got a ticket for speeding, and a verbal warning for being a dimwit.

Later, when we were parked on Interstate 70 near Cisco, I carefully inquired about the flow of medicinal weed from Colorado. Ever since Utah's more progressive marijuana bill failed, I've been interested in how those who need it acquire it.

Brian said that troopers in the Grand County area don't bother much with interdicting Colorado weed, meaning they don't specifically target Utahns coming back from Colorado. The only time weed comes up on their radar is when it comes courtesy of a stop for something else.

This isn't to say that troopers and deputies aren't aware of the negative effects of people driving while they're high.

"We used to worry mainly about people driving 15-20 miles per hour over the speed limit," Brian said. "Now we also worry about people driving 15-20 under it."

This brings up an interesting point about medicinal weed. While the positive qualities of it are becoming increasingly well known, it still remains a drug that can be abused by the irresponsible.

The last thing you want to encounter driving across the Cisco desert is some baked doofus driving his vintage VW bus at 51 mph.

Getting stopped by the Utah Highway Patrol is right up there as well. Motorists stopped along I-70 and discovered to be in possession of Colorado medicine are normally issued a citation for it.

Take the citation and move along. Those who insist on arguing the idiocy of Utah's marijuana laws with the police are booked into the Grand County Jail.

When I got back to the motel later that evening, Sonny asked where we should go in the morning.

"Let's visit Doc Holliday's grave in Glenwood Springs. Colorado."

Robert Kirby can be reached at rkirby@sltrib.com or facebook.com/stillnotpatbagley