One Day More

We set out a bit later this morning from Amarillo, at almost 10am. The morning drive was flat, straight, and uneventful. Later, we got to experience (and were delayed by) many other things, such as heavy downpours, construction, heavy downpours in the midst of construction, and of course, getting pulled over by a highway patrol officer. 

Uneventful morning

After we got into Oklahoma, we did see a number of highway patrol SUV's all around. There were three of them together hiding in a clearing behind a hill. I wasn't speeding (much), so I was not particularly concerned. However, we did note that one of the SUV's pulled out behind us. He came up, and was in the left lane behind me for about half a mile, and then pulled behind me and turned on his lights. Curious.

What did I do?

He asked for my license and insurance, and I gave it to him. I didn't ask him why he pulled me over - I assumed he'd let me know. What was the reason? He said that my licence plate frame (the one that the dealer put on when I bought the car) was obscuring the state name on my plate. Huh?

He said that it was illegal to obscure your license plate with a frame. He said he would let me off with a warning, but I should remove it when I got to an exit. The interaction was all very pleasant, but it just felt strange. I'm sure that is a law in many states, but it seems like one of those silly things that cops use an an excuse to pull you over. I'm sure these troopers aren't going around actively enforcing this law. Did I look suspicious in my silver minivan? Did I fit the profile of someone that needed to be stopped and checked out? I have no idea of the reason, but other than a 5-minute delay, no damage done.

I really had no intention of actually going through the hassle of removing the frame, but unfortunately, we still had about 4-5 hours of driving left in Oklahoma. I reasoned that if I were pulled over again for the same offense, I'd know they were serious, and I'd do something about it.

I actually have no comment on this.

We knew we were getting closer to home, because we actually experienced some significant rain that slowed us down. At times, the downpour was quite heavy, and I thought about scanning the skies for tornadoes. But I quickly gave that up, since I could only see about 10 feet past my car.

Made it to Missouri

New record for cheap gas. Unfortunately, we didn't need to stop.

We were hoping to get in early so the kids could swim before dinner, but due to construction and weather delays, we didn't reach Springfield, Missouri until around 6pm. So we picked up dinner and ate it in our hotel room so that we could hit the pool after dinner. The kids had fun swimming, and Patty and I also got a few minutes in the (very hot) jacuzzi. Everyone is sleeping now, as I also should be.

I apologize for the boring pictures in this post, when you are probably most interested in seeing pictures of the kids. Tomorrow, we drive the final stretch of our trip, returning home on the 27th day since departing.