A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....

I was picked up by a hitchhiker that took me from Vegas across the Hoover Dam. The 9/11 tragedy had occurred not long before and the dam was considered a terrorist target.

As such, military personnel had lined the top of the dam and set up a checkpoint for cars to stop at before crossing.

What I didn't know (yet) was that the minivan I was riding in as a passenger was stolen. The driver, not expecting the checkpoint suddenly became very nervous as we approached the top of the dam.

A sign warned us of the checkpoint and suggested we slow to 40mph... a short distance later another sign read 30mph.. another read 20mph...

The driver however, wasn't slowing. I saw him white knuckle the steering wheel.

I told him, "hey man, you gotta slow down!"

But he just kept going at speed.

At the 10 mph sign, military personnel were waving their arms at us and radioing others ahead if us.

And at the checkpoint, armed men stood with rifles pointed at our vehicle.

The driver slammed the brakes at the last minute and we came to screeching halt at the top of the dam.

"What the fuck is wrong is with you?" Shouted a man in full military garb.

"We could have shot you!"

The driver whimpered out something like, "I'm sorry" ... he was visibly shaking. Fuck, I was too.

But to our surprise, the man in charge just pointed down the road and yelled, "get the fuck out of here!"

And we did.

I stayed with that same driver, in that stolen minivan all the way to Oklahoma.

True story.