Oklahoma City, OK

Note to self: never plan on having a ten-hour day after getting five hours sleep. That's not a good recipie for driving. My day started off reasonably well, but about an hour into the day, I got pulled over. So I pulled onto an exit ramp (since there was one right there) and found out I was getting a level 2 DOT inspection. Why? My truck's right headlight is out; I was told by maintenance that nobody cares if one headlight is out, but apparently that's not true. For those who don't know what that means, a level 2 inspection is just a basic walk around; the officer looks at all the things I'm supposed to check every time I leave the truck. A level 1 inspection is a full inspection, covering everything I'm supposed to do on my pre-trip, all 104 items. There apparently are also other kinds of inspections, but those are the only two I'm familiar with so far.

As this is the first time I've been pulled over, given an inspection, or otherwise had to deal with the DOT aside from having to drive through a weigh station, I really wasn't sure what to do. The officer was a little unsure as well, since the Kansas police force just started using a new computer system. I was dinged for three items: the bad headlight, a bad tail light on the tractor, and one trailer tire that is below 2/32 tread depth. I knew about the headlight and tail light, and planned on getting those fixed at the next OC I come to, but even after taking a second look at all my trailer tires I can't see any of them that are below 2/32. There are little rubber nubs instead all the major grooves of the tire, which correspond to that minimum tread; if they were sticking out or ripped out, then the tire would be below that mark. Even so, if I still have the trailer with me when I go through another OC, I'll tell maintenance about it.

Thankfully, the rest of the day was entirely uneventful. Since I didn't sleep so well (or so much), I decided to call it a day about 100 miles earlier than I originally planned on, since there was a Pilot truck stop, I wanted a shower, and would feel a lot more confident if I had full fuel tanks. Given that I'm going to be heading west of I-35, I'd rather not screw up something trivial like my fuel supply. Since I'm supposed to be home in 11 days, I can't imagine they're going to keep me out here for too long, but I certainly wouldn't mind a quick jaunt out to the west coast, perhaps followed by a trip back across on I-10. Of course, I think I have a better chance of winning on the Powerball ticket I bought while I was in Iowa.