A Montana police officer spotted the giant banana rolling through Billings on Wednesday afternoon and did what countless law enforcement officers have done before him.
He turned around and pulled it over.
For Steve Braithwaite, owner, builder and full-time driver of the 23-foot-long Big Banana Car, the stop was less of a surprise than a tradition.
"I would see a police car going the other way and get my documents ready," Braithwaite told Cowboy State Daily from Seattle on Thursday morning. "I knew they were going to loop around and pull me over."
After 15 years, more than 250,000 miles and enough roadside conversations to fill a produce aisle, Braithwaite has learned that driving a giant banana attracts attention.
Especially from cops.
"They always find a reason to pull me over," Braithwaite said.
in this case it was an issue with the license plate, but ultimately he was not given a ticket.
Peel Out
Braithwaite figures he may have spent the better part of a decade as one of the most frequently pulled-over drivers in America.
Not for speeding, but simply because he was driving a giant banana.
"For the first eight or nine years I was the most pulled-over man in America," he said. "It was constant."
Often officers simply wanted photographs.
Other times they invented reasons to start a conversation.
His favorite stop happened in a small mountain town in West Virginia.
A traffic light turned red. Braithwaite stopped. The light turned green and he made a leisurely turn through the intersection.
A few moments later, flashing lights appeared behind him.
A police officer marched up to the banana and delivered the news.
"'The reason I pulled you over, that light back there, you peeled out.'"
For a moment, Braithwaite didn't know if he was being serious or not.
"He said it so straight-faced," Braithwaite recalled. "And I'm like, 'Oh yeah.'"
The banana jokes, he said, are "never-ending."
Fortunately, so are the laughs.
Passengers wave from the Big Banana Car during one of Braithwaite's many community appearances. He regularly offers rides and says meeting people is the best part of driving the giant fruit. (Courtesy: Steve Braithwaite)
Steve Braithwaite and a law enforcement official pose beside the Big Banana Car. (Courtesy: Steve Braithwaite)
The Big Banana Car makes an appearance at a McDonald's parking lot. Braithwaite says ordinary errands often become impromptu photo opportunities. (Courtesy: Steve Braithwaite)
The Big Banana Car rolls down a residential street. Braithwaite built the vehicle atop a pickup truck chassis after a chance encounter with a banana in a gas station inspired the idea. (Courtesy: Steve Braithwaite)
How It All Started
The whole thing began in a gas station in 2008.
Braithwaite, a lifelong hot-rod enthusiast, had become bored attending car shows.
Then he watched an episode of the British television show "Top Gear" featuring bizarre custom-built vehicles, including a street-legal garden shed and a drivable couch.
For the next month, his brain worked overtime.
"Everything I looked at, I thought, 'can I turn that into a car?'" he said. "My drill, my neighbor's lawn mower, everything."
Then one day he found himself standing beside a bowl of fruit in a gas station.
On top sat a banana.
Not the curved cartoon banana he'd always pictured, but a straighter one.
Suddenly, he could see it.
"The windshield would go there. The wheels would go there."
Then came the moment that changed everything.
"I pictured it driving down the road and died laughing," he said.
The image captivated him so completely that the checkout line moved without him noticing.
"The lady directly behind me had to tap me on the shoulder," he said. "They must have been thinking, 'Oh my God, is that the first banana he's ever seen?'"
His rule was simple.
"If it makes me laugh now, I'm going to do it."
It still made him laugh.
So he built it.
What he expected to be a parade novelty became his daily driver.
The truck beneath the banana has now traveled more than 250,000 miles.
"I didn't think I'd be driving it anywhere near as much as I am," he said.
Braithwaite displays a cash tip from a passenger who took a ride in the Big Banana Car. Braithwaite funds much of his travel through voluntary donations from riders he meets along the road. (Courtesy: Steve Braithwaite)
Passengers wave from the Big Banana Car during one of Braithwaite's many community appearances. He regularly offers rides and says meeting people is the best part of driving the giant fruit. (Courtesy: Steve Braithwaite)
Roaming In Wyoming
Braithwaite didn't stop in Wyoming on this trip. He was headed west toward Washington.
But Wyoming still occupies an important place in banana history.
Several years ago, while crossing the state, the Big Banana Car suddenly died alongside a lonely stretch of highway.
"I hadn't realized the distances between towns," he said. "I was in the middle of nowhere."
Parked beside the highway, luggage scattered around him. He "managed to get it running again."
By then he was running out of time to get to Los Angeles for a TV appearance, so he left in a hurry.
But he says there's a chance he might come back.
Braithwaite wants to race the famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and why not in the Rockies?
He has already challenged it, but he says he thinks Kraft won't go for it.
Sooner or later, he figures, some reporter would ask a dangerous question.
"Instead of which is the quicker vehicle, which is the healthier food?"
Then he laughs.
"And they're going to lose that."
World Needs More Whimsy
Casper car enthusiast Tom Morton says he is curious about the drag race with Oscar Mayer's wiener.
"What's next?" Morton asks, "Asparagus street rods?" Overall, he says "I like it."
What began as a joke has evolved into something larger.
Braithwaite recently drove the banana into Mexico, where he was pulled over five times in three days.
Every encounter was friendly, he says.
Now he's thinking much bigger.
His goal is to drive the Big Banana Car through Central America; somehow get it shipped across oceans and eventually circle the globe.
"I just want to keep going," he said.
He's calling the adventure "The World Needs More Whimsy Grand Tour."
A sign mounted to the back of the vehicle carries the slogan.
"The world is dangerously low on whimsy," says the man hoping to make a difference.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
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