what was this?

On I-91 in northern Connecticut, we started noticing that there were an awful lot of police vehicles stopped on the side of the road at intervals, lights flashing but no sirens. Sometimes it was just one vehicle, sometimes several (like 6+) all gathered together. This went on for several miles.

Then we saw that at all the entrance ramps, vehicles were blocking traffic from entering. Huge huge delays I'm sure--the lines of cars on the ramps went as far back as we could see (which admittedly wasn't far).

It wasn't just police vehicles. There were ambulances, fire trucks, even an animal control truck. It seemed like every type of official vehicle the towns could spare was there.

FINALLY we saw the convoy: the reason for all those stopped cars. It started off with motorcycles and went on for another mile, all official vehicles, all with lights flashing but no sirens.

Lots and lots of people.

And all kinds of vehicles. The people standing by them were all saluting or looking somber and official.

Finally normal cars followed the convoy. You can see the line of cars waiting at that entrance ramp.

So what could this have been? We speculated: a state official or military official being transported? Why would they have driven on the highway and not flown? The most satisfying answer was that it was a funeral convoy for some important person, but we don't know for sure. Google searches have yielded nothing.

Another weird thing: On the way up we did a little car/people watching. We laughed at strange bumper stickers and when cars or stickers didn't match what we expected the driver to look like. On the way down we spotted someone we had seen on the way up! He was one of the few drivers who looked like what his stickers suggested he should: a young artsy-type...the stickers were about music and music teachers.