Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Life on the road for us truck drivers is sooo much fun. Each day a new place. Everyday a new adventure. Right? Well, tonight I’m in Rawlins Wyoming. It has been a long time since I’ve been this far West. And I truly forgot how weird it can be. In fact, I feel, after going inside the T/A to have a “steak”, this must be as close to being with aliens on another planet as I will come. And the weather – you’ve got to be kidding.

It is windy, no not windy, what I’m experiencing are gail force winds!  Like trying to stand on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. The rocking flashing sign out on the interstate, more specifically I-80, says its blowing at 60+ mph. No small trailers it says. I can see no one listens. Idiot 4-wheelers. What’s the speed limit here – 85? The headwind is so strong that I have to constantly downshift my 17,000 lbs. HVAC units as if I’m schlepping 48,000 lbs. up Mt. Eagle. I’m so glad it’s not winter, although being May here there is still snow on the ground and plenty of the white stuff up in the mountains with the goats. Summer should be here in about two months and last a whole week when the weather will turn frigid again. Why the heck would anybody want to live here?

Well how about T/A waitress Megan. All of 98 lbs, four foot something – blond with far too much makeup on. Her heavy black eyeliner makes her almost “Goth” in her appearance. Are you familiar with the character Abby in NCIS? She wears those really weird high black clunky boots. Well Megan wore the same thing and she kind of clumped and shuffled around the restaurant carrying food and drink to the smoking (still legal here) belching patrons – 98% of whom are “real” truckers. My son had a serious girlfriend a while back with the same name that worked at a place called Wing House -which is similar to Hooters. Man oh man did this girl have problems – with her mother, her father, her younger sister, older sister, aunts, cousins – OMG – no wonder she stayed in bed all day half the time. She was always teary eyed. Well T/A waitress Megan was the same, which I discovered after she messed up my order and I asked her what the heck was distracting her. I’m kinda sorry I asked, but she did a lot better after she dumped her Jerry Springer type existence on me. Seems everyone in Wyoming is from somewhere else and they all seem sorry they left. I personally am sorry I left the Central Time zone.

So the steak was horrible. Not Megan’s fault. Seems the meat is better is Tennessee than Wyoming. And the bottle of steak sauce on the table was almost empty. Too bad. I decided to use ketchup to give the former steer some flavor. Across at the other table from me was a dude that looked just like Gene Simmons of KISS. Maybe it was him. Mean looking SOB. And then two guys sat near me and they both – I swear – looked like the Pecos Bill character – really wide moustaches and huge rim cowboy hats and the rest of the comical getup. I asked Megan if these guys were for real – was there a movie being filmed nearby? She said – she always needed a sec to come up with an intelligent response to what I asked her – like I was speaking French and she needed to translate in her brain the words to English and then spit out something coherent to impress me. She said she wondered about them as well. I’m sure she never heard of Gene Simmons. After all, she couldn’t have been more than 18. Without the makeup 12. She was originally from Salt Lake, which based on my being there a few times, everyone is really s-t-r-a-n-g-e as in they all go back to the mother ship (UFO) at night.

Tomorrow I will (God willing) get to the casino in Elko Nevada. It is a hot oh so very hot JIT load. I wonder if the casino patrons are wasting away in the heat or cold waiting for these units to be off loaded and installed. I know, this time, if they take one off and put in front of my truck, I’ll, for sure, be able to see it. Who knows where they’ll send me next. I’ll die if I have to venture into bankrupt California. Mountain time is bad enough without having to then deal with Pacific Time. Next week, after 4 weeks out, I’ll try to make it home. Hey maybe I’ll run into the other Megan. Too bad the T/A waitresses don’t dress like the Wing House gals. Yeah, yeah, I’m a dirty old man, but I’m loving every sec of it. Be safe out there drivers. Oh yeah, things could be worse – I could be at the T/A in Nashville! LOL