I was riding a lonely country road with a small shoulder and I was left of the fog line. There is virtually no traffic on this stretch and anybody that does come by gives me all the room a rider could ever want until....

A highway patrolman pulls up behind me and suspiciously follows close behind for a while. Me wondering wth he was doing, waves him to go the heck by. He does, and pull over ahead of me and stops me.

He nicely told me state law says to ride as far to the right as practicable which I already knew of course. I said, "right, that's left of the fog line". He says yes....er....I mean no....you need to be on the shoulder. I said, "I'm sorry sir, that is not practicable and rode away. As he passed me, to appease him, I briefly rode on the fog line.

A bit later, I saw him down the road and talked with him for a while. First off I apologized for appearing disrespectful and then explained to him the finer points of riding the road and explained the difficulty and danger of riding on the narrow shoulder. I also explained that from my experience, most drivers appreciate it when a rider takes control of the situation by riding assertively.

I think I gave him a bit of an education actually.