Pulled Over?

I had just gotten my day started. After waking up to sunshine in Maryville, KS... a welcome change from the snow I woke up to in Denver the night before, I was happily on my way east bound on US-36. I'd not been moving along very long, half hour to forty five minutes at best when I passed a full grown rolling west bound. I was be-bopping along enjoying the mornings' glory when, as I scanned my mirrors, I saw the cop doing a flip-flop in the median behind me.

I didn't really think too much of it at first. I kept driving, 5 mph below the posted speed limit thanks to Trucky's governor, minding my own business. I scanned my mirrors once again and saw that the cop was tailing me pretty close. "Hmm... what's up with that?!" I thought to myself. But kept driving, keeping it between the lines and shiny side up when all of a sudden the disco lights caught my attention in my side mirror.

Damn.

I signaled and pulled onto the shoulder, the officer following suit. I came to a stop, set the brakes, shut off the engine and pulled on the hazard lights just in case. It was still early and the sun wasn't all the way above the horizon just yet... and it was a little foggy. Safety first and always....

I waited patiently for the office to approach my truck. He was promptly at my door. He bid me good morning and informed me that this was going to be a simple spot check and a level three inspection. He asked me to gather the pertinent documents and come back to the cruiser. He retreated as I scrounged up the items he'd asked for. I then checked traffic and safely exited my truck and headed back to the cruiser.

He motioned me to the passenger seat and I followed the request to sit down and relax. I handed over each item of paperwork as he asked for it and sat quietly waiting for him to initiate the next bit of conversation. After a few minutes of silence he started explaining that he pulled me over because I was the first truck he'd seen since his shift started and that they are preparing for the CVSA blitz that is coming before too long, trying to get the officers used to performing the various DOT inspections.

We bantered back and forth about nothing of consequence, then he told me I checked out just fine and that I was free to go on about my day. I thanked him for his time and kindness and for allowing me my first opportunity to sit in a real police cruiser. He laughed, shook my hand and wished me farewell. Nice fella... not a bad experience. But I was pleased as peaches when I was east bound once more.

After a long day of driving across US-36 through Kansas and Missouri I finally found myself on I-72, shutting down in Decatur, IL for the night. I was glad to be done for the day, pooped as the whirlwind trip to the left coast and the changes in time zones had finally caught up with me leaving me exhausted. I laid in the bunk reading a book until I finally gave up and went to sleep. This morning I headed east once more and found myself stopping here at our terminal in Indy.

When I arrived I went straight to the maintenance building to see about getting a couple of tractor tires replaced that have been wearing in a weird pattern for a while now (an alignment issue that will be fixed during my next PM thankfully). After getting me into a bay to change the two tires, the call was made by someone high up in the shop to go ahead and replace all of the tires on the drive axles and the one steer tired that was the worst.

Once that was done I parked and came into the terminal and did some laundry, which was piling up disturbingly so, and starting to get funky. Clean clothes washed, folded, and put away I came back into the terminal and participated in our company spring training.

Now, I'm blogging and relaxing and preparing to eat some yummy Chinese leftovers... I'd had it fresh for lunch while I was waiting for laundry to dry earlier. After that... I'm headed out to the truck to sleep and dream of a better tomorrow, when I'll be three hours from home and hopefully that much closer to finally getting to start my much needed time off.