Crazy Trucker does Dallas Truckstops

I woke up early at the truck stop before going on in to the terminal last week from West Virginia. Instead of going to the house in the middle of the night in the opposite direction, I headed right back out to Phoenix, Az. Leaving so early left me with a little extra time to check out some things around the truck stops that I had long been procrastinating about. I mean it was just for self satisfaction then, but now I have a reason to check some things out. I got people to inform and report to! Yeah, that's you! Anyway, you already know I got some cb talk from West Memphis truck stops. I stayed at the Pilot out there. Was surprised to find so much truck parking. I checked out the BBQ man out there but I will get back to the W Va trip and the W. Memphis truck stop stay at a later date, lets do Dallas since there was so much there in one spot.

Dallas is a very convenient stay over for a big truck driver that has missed a trip by the house. When I first got in to the Flying J truck stop I found out there was not even one parking space at about 5pm on a Sunday. There was also no parking at the T/A truckstop which was at the same exit. There was a hotel there with truck parking but I didn't have the money I was willing to part for that.

Figured I would check out the Pilot Truck stop at the 470 Exit. Before I left the truckstop parking lot, I got on my weak little CB trying to find out if there was a barber shop in any of the truckstops (it had been such a long time that I had time to stop in Dallas that I couldn't remember. Usually I go straight through or get there the morning I deliver. mostly because of the parking situation and timing). Finally someone answered back to say that there wasn't one in any of the truckstops around there. I asked a few more times to be sure I wouldn't get a different answer. A guy came back saying that he knew a barber that would come out and that he was going to meet with him after he dropped his load off. I was like oooookaay (You know like, is there anything more to that statement you left off)

I said, where is he, is there truck parking there, is he at a truckstop, is he nearby. Dude was like ,"he not far from here but it doesn't matter a whole lot, he's mobile, he will come to you"

I was like, "Get out of here, serious?"

Jr, "Yeah, I will give you my number and you hit me up and I will tell him what's up when I see him and he'll come out here to you if you want"!

Me, "Yeah, that will work, I look 2 months homeless. I might scare the customers when I go to deliver tomorrow."

Jr was like, "Ok, hit me up at 555-777-9311" (Yall know that's not the number he gave me right? You don't remember that song? It's Prince. LOL O, most of yall probably too young!:-)

ANYWAY

So I went down to the 470 exit where the Pilot Truckstop was. Of course that was full too. The only thing left, close by was the USA Truckstop on the North side of the highway. I went over there and saw that there was right many parking spaces. I knew there was something wrong with that spot because it just wouldn't be that many spaces. By now 1.5 hours had passed since I had been in Dallas. (Oh, I left out the fact that I parked at the fuel island at the Flying J and at the pilot before I left. Once to use the bathroom and the other time to see if where the next pilot was going west. Plus I never ever been to that Pilot before, so I just had to see if there was anything different about it compared to the others. No different, looks like it was an old Williams truckstop and Pilot might have bought them out.)

So, I hit him up. The phone rang and rang and rang and voice mail.

Me,"Yeah man this is your boy CT trying to get back at you about getting up with your boy to get my head straight. Roger? aaaaah I am over here at the USA truck stop at the 472, backing it into the hole right now, holla back at me and let me know the 411 on hook up. 10/4!" "Hit me back at 777-9311 (Yes, that was the telephone call. It happens sometime. You get the phone and the CB mixed up!But yall know that wasn't the real number I said to him right? O we did that already)

ANYWAY Thirty minutes passed and he hadn't called back so I called again. The phone rang, and rang, and rang.

I was trying to decide should I let it keep ringing and go to voice mail or should I just hang up. What would you have done? Well anyway, I ended up deciding to let it keep ringing. In an effort not to seem like a desperado I simply said this time, "Yeah, this is your boy hitting you back about the haircut. Hit me back at . . . (you know the number)."

20 minutes or so later I was pretty much feeling like he had probably gotten tied up with some unexpected event and it was gonna be a wrap. No haircut for me I was thinking. I walked over to the truck stop which had a Churches (or Popeye's or something like that, didn't really matter to me) attached to it just to see what it looked like inside. A sign was on the door saying No Fuel until further notice AND not to park on the lot cause towing would be enforced. I laughed (Hoping they were talking about the part with the gas pumps). Oh, did I say that the doors were locked. Yep, that entire part of the truck stop was shut down. No bathrooms or showers or Weather channel forecast tonite.

The restaurant beside it was still in operation but they had no rest rooms either. I seriously considered going to the hotel but I really couldn't afford it and I hadn't delivered any furniture that day so it wasn't like I was in desperate need of a shower, but it would have made the hair cut a little more interesting without being able to get that shower," maybe that's why it didn't work out", I said to myself. (Actually, I said it to myself, but not in my head. A lot of times I say out loud what others think to themselves and people think I am talking to them when they are around and I guess they think I am 1 stop from the Koo Koo's nest when they see me walking across the truck stop parking lot thinking, debating or chating out loud with myself.)

I went back to the truck, when I opened the door the phone which was on the charger that have worked was ringing. Figuring it would stop by time I got to it, I made no attempt to catch it. (I am not a big phone fanatic, and there is no significant other who calls that cares whether I answer or not so it was no big deal. had already put the haircut out of my mind). I had some work to do on the website anyway so I pretty much was thinking about what to do first while I walked back across the lot. When I got back in the truck and sit down, the phone rang again from a San Antonio area code. (I have to call every stop I deliver, I know a whole whole whole lot of area codes by heart!)

I said to myself(lol out loud probably), I don't supposed this is the guy who was talking about the barber calling from a San Antonio area code. I started not to answer because I got a bad habit of just not answering the phone when it's not a familiar number cause many people have been given the number and I am usually always about to do something all the time, whether its writing or working on the site or push ups or paper work or eat or sleep. Always something you know!

For some reason I did answer though and it was your boy about the barber, said he was headed over and it was all good they wood call me back.

So a little while later they called back and next thing you know we was meeting up to get my head straight. The video wouldn't up load said there was a connection reset. so here is pic for now. Gonna try to load it again tonite when I go to sleep. We plugged the clippers into the inverter and it was on and popping. The guys were real cool, down to earth, and seem to be good people.

that night, I covered my pillow with a shirt and put a towel on my bed beneath that trying to keep the hair from falling on the bed itself.

The Next Morning.

I heard a lady on the radio talking about a truck wash but she was spending a whole lot of time giving directions and local info. Since she was being so helpful to us drivers, I wanted to know what quality of work they did. If it was good work I figured I would put them out there because I liked the fact that she was helping drivers with the info instead of just hogging the channel with that big radio. She was at the Galaxy Truck Plaza just south of I20 at the same exit before getting to the pilot. I hadn't even really noticed it on Sunday when I drove by. After I parked, I saw a KW park it looked pretty sharp. Nice and clean too I was too busy busy at that point trying to figure out why there was a van parked in the middle of the parking lot. (Making sure nothing peculiar was going on in relation to that van) I saw the guy get out but within a minute the truck was pulling back out again. I had done decided I was gonna go ask him about doing an interview because he was driving a flatbed to get a little insight on flatbed hauling and he slip right out before I could ask.

Later I figured out he only parked to check out his truck because he had just come out of the Galaxy Truck wash. His quick departure pretty much indicated that his wash job was like Taco Bell. (Good to Go).

I left my video camera in the truck and went in the truck wash. I didn't want to tell her what I was doing, I just asked questions like I was a driver thinking about getting a wash. She was real cool, gave me all the information I ask for and didn't really try to push a hard sell. Just stated what they were offering and the days discount which I think was $2 dollars off. I asked for a price listing and she printed one out after finding it.

She then told me about Sheila's Soul Food inside the truck stop. After pointing out how good the food was, she pointed out the menu and pricing. While she was talking about food I was thinking about questioning Shelia about the Truck Wash! Soooo, I told her I would check them out maybe next time I came through. I didn't real want to tell her why I was asking all the questions before I talked to someone else there about the quality of their work.

I went into the Galaxy Truck Stop and just inside was a Chrome Shop full of what else, Chrome. Anything you could think of I imagine was in that shop. Walls and aisles full of chrome. The guy behind the counter was real cool and i figured he would know more about that truck was than Sheila would so I began asking him about the Truck wash. He said that they had a great reputation because they did great work. The other guy at the counter said he usually gets his truck washed their too and that he was always satisfied.

Sooo, I was like cool. Then I asked the guy at the Chrome shop about Sheila's food! He said that it was just like home in so many words. I asked the trucker at the counter if he would give me an interview about his experience with trucking. He was a little reluctant (I guess I would be also, I need to get a T-Shirt or Id Card or something so I seem a little more legit) I told them why I was asking the questions about the truck wash and Sheila's Sould Food. Then I told them about Life as a Trucker Website and how I was trying to inform the up and coming drivers and also provide a place for the current drivers to share beneficial information and so forth.

John finally said, "I got to go check see if I got a load and if not I will be back and do an interview with you", I was like cool. John left and went to the truck. I walked over to the restaurant to pay Sheila a visit. She was posted between the counter and the Subway in the convenient store. All kinds of stoves and ovens was back there strategically placed and almost hidden from the average customer. The air was filled with a Thanksgiving aroma. It was set up for a quick turnaround but the smell was like a full scaled kitchen. I ordered the meatloaf dinner plate to go. (They got a few chairs in there in case you want to sit and eat). She asked if I wanted cornbread or biscuits, its been a while since I had eaten either but i opted for the cornbread. She asked about desert and I declined, after finding out there was an additional charge. She ended up throwing it in since it was my first time there. She was real cool people, seemed like I knew her from home or something. You can see the review of my taste test later. I went back out to the truck while I was waiting on my food to cook, figured I would go ahead and get the camcorder to record some footage of Kim in the truck wash. The original plan was to go back in and tell her I was gonna video and why and tell her to tell me about the truck wash. What I actually ended up doing was going in there right away with the video running without even warning her about who I was or what I was doing until after shooting some footage. I edited out some of the chatter pretty nicely but I ended up with real nice little informative quick interview. She did an excellent job after hiding from the camera!

After shooting, I walked over to my truck and i noticed that John was still there so I politely knock on his door with the camera rolling, lol. I didn't expect him to take that so well, but he really seemed cool so I did it anyway! :-) He wasn't even as hesitant this time to do it. Wow, I thought this was great, John really is as cool as he seemed to be. Check him out.

I went back in and got my plate from Sheila's Sould Food never telling her who I was or what I was doing. By now I was pretty much in a rush to get back to work anyway I wasn't saying anything much to anyone. Said a quick peace out to my man at the Chrome shop, jumped in the truck and updated my logbook. I had to go about an hour and a half to get to my first stop. Then I went another 20 minutes to my next stop in Weatherford, Texas. When I got there they were on lunch break so I figured this would be a good time to finally eat mine from Sheila's

After that delicious break, it was time to work it off unloading some furniture. When I finished, I asked the guys where the closest Walmart was cause I needed a moneygram and pairs. It wasn't far up the street from that stop I was glad, cause I was feeling a little non-productive for getting such a slow start. Even though I wasn't even supposed to start making deliveries until the next day anyway. But still, I have to get a certain amount of something done by a certain time or I feel like I am not being productive.

In the Wal-mart parking lot, I ran across a nice looking Freightliner with a for sale sticker on it, so I figured I would record that too, and ask the guy if he want me to stick it on my website to help him sell it. Who knows what his situation might have been the reason he was getting out of the truck. He might have been an old owner op hitting hard times needing money or he might have upgraded to a brand new something or other and had no use for it or he could just be jumping in a company truck to take advantage of the benefits like you heard John talking about.

Either way, I figured it wouldn't hurt me one bit to shoot a little footage and I might help him by selling it and at the same time help someone who's looking get a great deal. So here it is.

(Waiting on the guy to get back with me for permission to show it to you. He said someone may buy it today)