Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Close Encounters of the Truck Stop Kind

Stories from the road...
At a truck stop in Iowa:
We pull up to a pump outside the front doors and John proceeds to begin filling the tank. I jump out and tell him I’m going in to use the facilities and to just meet me inside when he’s done. Enter the truck stop - looks average, albeit a bit dingy and dark. I notice there are security guards, which is something I haven’t seen often, so I feel a slight apprehension but I continue towards the restroom. Enter the restroom - looks dingy like the rest of the place, an identifiable odour lurks, I try not to touch anything with my bare hands. Fast forward >>>I am now washing my hands and here enters a petite, middle-aged woman of Asian descent. I am facing the mirror and behind me I can see two regular stalls and a handicapped stall, all doors wide open. The woman enters the handicapped stall against the wall to my right, turns to face me, looks me in the eyes and undoes her belt in an odd manner, jerking it to the right, looking like she’s about to pull the whole belt out of her pants. Now I’m feeling quite awkward and I quickly look down to finish rinsing my hands. I fully expected her to shut the door but shockingly, when I glance back up, I see this woman whip down her pants and SIT directly on the toilet, door wide open, once again, LOOKING at me. I made a face that said, "ewww, nasty!" and booked it out of there. I’m sure John saw the disgust on my face because as I walked back toward the car, he said, "What? Was it gross in there?" I told him what happened and we laughed. Once he finished with the gas, we went back into the truck stop to buy some drinks and as we passed the restroom, that woman came walking out and smiled at me as she went by us! What the Q??? lol
At another truck stop in Pennsylvania:
This was last Tuesday - we were on our way home after having left the Cleveland area that morning. It was about lunchtime and we were thirsty anyway so we got off the highway and stopped at a TA. We walked to the door and just as we got there, it opened. There stood an Amish man, with two women in bonnets. Immediately, my inner soundtrack started playing, "Jebediah feeds the chickens and Jacob plows..." I felt guilty for a moment, but it passed. We get inside, and there is a long line of Amish people...at Burger King! What is up with that? John says he doesn’t think they have any rules about what they can eat and from what I’ve read, I don’t think they do either. Still, it was a bit odd. Then grandpa Amish came walking up from the back of the store with a righteous gray beard and busted out a wallet with a wad to pay for some stuff at the counter. Where’s all that money from? They must be selling some pretty fancy butter whence he came. Anyway, they all piled into a giant van (driven by a non-Amish man, as evidenced by his lack of beard and hat and casual dress) and hit the highway headed toward New York. I still wonder where they were going...
I know I still need to sort through my pictures. I swear, I will be posting more later! I think the last post with pictures went up to Flagstaff, AZ and it only got prettier after that!

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