No, 15 Minutes of Fame is not a little town in Ohio. It's the state of affairs that Armand left behind as he drove west to Colorado last week.
On the road after a late start last Wednesday, Armand came upon some road construction,120 miles west of Morgantown on Interstate 70. He encountered a man, signaling him to veer over to the left. A brief moment of confusion, hesitation, acceleration, questioning arms,"turn left", a left turn, a fist banging on his window and he's out of there. A few miles down the road, Armand was stopped and arrested for vehicular assault.
Apparently, the man directing traffic was a sheriff's deputy and he perceived a belligerent driver making obscene gestures and driving toward him. So off to jail with Armand! Handcuffs, fingerprints and mug shots.
It didn't take long for the jailers to realize that this was no Mad Max (sorry, Mel ), and they fed Armand a chicken dinner and arranged for 'a very nice bondsman' to retrieve his wallet from the impounded car so that Armand could post bail.
"They even agreed to a court date that would coincide with my drive back home. Otherwise, I would have had to cancel the whole trip!"
Armand, dubbed 'the nicest person put in jail', bid jail personnel and the kind bondsman goodbye, and was on the road again at 10:30pm. Not until he spoke to his daughter, Ann, on Saturday night, did he find out that the newspapers and television channels had given him far more than his 15 Minutes of Fame. It prompted a Morgantown resident to alter her 'Where's Armand' t-shirt to read, 'FREE Armand!'
I spoke to Armand on Sunday morning. He was reading the last 10 pages of The Scarlet Ruse in his room at Colorado Cottages. Although slightly annoyed that the news accounts weren't entirely factual, he empathized with the deputy's working conditions. All of that being miles behind him, as soon as he finished the book, he was going to do a little pilgrimage hike to a spot he and his late wife, Mary, loved to visit.
"You have us cheering you on, Armand," I said.
He quickly replied,
"Okay. I have a fan club! Goodbye."