greg334
Veteran Expediter
I got to tell you that many of you have seen more but I am shocked at some of the things I have seen for the month I have been on the road.
Shopping at Wal-Mart in Tennessee, I was going down the isle and saw a guy talking to himself in Spanish. He later dropped his pants and started to do his business in the middle of the isle between men’s and boys clothing. I later learned that he was a mental patient who is also an invader and they can’t deport him.
I go through some of the stores now that Christmas is approaching fast and watch parents do frantic shopping – where they have to but that perfect gift for the brats. What gets me is when they are on the phone, yanking things off the shelf and ignoring people as they run into them or stand in their way. I watched as one lady was in line and a guy behind her was patently waiting for her to get off the phone to pay for her stuff. I think he had enough when he grabbed the phone, hung it up and threw it in her bags. This is not the first time I saw this happen, a few weeks ago when some lady was fed up with a kid who was sitting in the isle blocking it while reading, she took the phone, hung it up and flung it down the isle to get the kid off her a**.
When I use a bathroom I have been double checking lately to make sure I go into the right one. One day I am at McDonalds buying my health food and before I order I went to the bathroom. Mind you that this is in the heart of dysfunction Tennessee and there are two really picture perfect families out in the dining area. So I am doing my business and here come in one of the girls who belong to one of the families. She just uses the urinal while I and two others watch. We all checked the sign and wondered what part of MEN she didn’t understand. One of the guys told the manager and the manger said to us that this has happened before with these people.
Speaking of McDonalds, I had to deal with another rather dumb manager on the road. She took my order, I swiped my card and I got change back. I tried to explain to her that I wasn’t supposed to get change back but she said I paid and she was not to except tips. I have no clue what that meant but hey an extra $7 is nice.
The other McDonalds thing has been messing up my order and using my first name to tell me my order is ready. I have gotten a lot of free food in the past month, but the first name thing bugs me because I have had twice that I happened to stand next to another Greg and the people make behind the counter make a big deal out of it – just read the order and we can figure it out ourselves.
I love truckers, especially after my Florida trip. It must be Florida that the sunshine makes people rude because I dropped off in the sunshine state and was stuck in my parking spot by a broken down truck that was also blocking the entrance way. About four of us were there being blocked and no one except me went over to ask if he needed help. He said that the company will be sending out service and thanked me for the offer. The other truckers were not sympathetic, a bunch yelled at him, a few went over the lawn to get by him and others just looked plain stupid staring at him.
The second I love truckers thing has been fueling up. Yesterday I fueled up at the pilot ex 19 on I 20. I just don’t get the thing of pulling into the fuel isle, parking your truck and going into the truck stop only to return 45 minutes later, I feel guilty if I have to go to the bathroom and spend 5 minutes there – get in, fuel up and get out of the way. But the 45 minute thing seems to happen a lot, all rude behavior. Well I got stuck behind a lady trucker who for all intent and purpose had to fuel up, go do her business, go do some shopping (I kid you not and no it has nothing to do with gender) and buy something to eat while I finished fueling and wanted to leave so the four others behind me could fuel. Someone went in there and got her to move her truck, so what the H*ll does she do? She goes around the entire lot and back to the fuel isles to park and went back in. there were plenty of open spaces at the time – lazy and rude.
The third I love truckers thing is watching some try to park some of these monster trucks. The other day (and this has happened often) I watched someone with a nice big KW with a nice long LONG wheel base with a nice very long trailer and with a nice very small sleeper try to park in the spot sort of next to me. Mind you there was a storage trailer between the spots but still he worked at it for 35 minutes trying to get the trailer passed the edge of the storage trailer, he even had a helper but for some reason with over 70 feet between the idle aire barriers and the edge of the parking spots he just couldn’t do it. I have no sympathy for someone who buys such a truck to fill their egos. I have had a few times when a trucker with a long trailer looked at me like I was at fault and a few times I even moved my little truck all the way back in the spot so they can get in but still they could not make it.
The fourth I love truckers thing is clutter, I just don’t get it. I mean I sat next to a truck in Alabama and the entire front seats were filled with junk, everything from shoe boxes to an animal cage. I walked past one at one truck stop in Indiana with newspapers stacked up and another that had garbage bags filled with something all over the place. Ok I don’t have the best organized truck on the road, right now I am looking at my books and USA today sitting on the floor in my cab but I also clean my cab at least every week (floor windows and dash get vacuumed and wiped down) but some of these truckers are just plain pigs.
The fifth I love truckers thing is somewhat disgusting too but strange. I use the proper tool for the proper job, including urinals and toilets. I have discussed this with a few and don’t get it, why would someone use the one of two toilets to pee and pee everywhere on the floor and seat while there are 15 urinals with no one around(except me in the other stall doing my business)? I mean I find this an odd behavior, maybe because I am used to doing the right thing – I don’t know? Well when I thought about this, the next opportunity (yes I was bored that day doing my business) I decided to count how many used the toilet instead of the urinal, and to my surprise out of 15 people, 7 used the toilet. Out of those 7 only 3 shut the door and out of those 7, every one of them made a mess. Oh out of those 7, 2 washed their hands.
The sixth I love truckers thing is really not about truckers but truck stops. I was reading T/A’s magazine Road King November/December issue, while waiting for my PM to get done. I started with the articles and when I was called to pick up my truck I parked I in a spot. Mind you I am in Winslet NC at the T/A and figure that they would be like the T/A I stayed at in southern GA, always running around with a vacuum golf cart thing but no way. I look around while I am parking and it is a mess here. So I park, grab the magazine and start at the beginning. There was something in the driving it home section about the problems of litter and filth being associated with truckers and how we are going to end up paying for the reputation. It strikes me that T/A needs to take the words of M J Green of Irving TX and take pride in their facility. This is the dirtiest truck stop I have yet been in and T/A knows it now.
The last I love truckers thing is the idea that I and other straight truck drivers need to move their truck out of the parking spot because someone can’t find a parking spot. I have had this happen to me twice and both times by someone who worked for a major trucking company. I ignored the request. But I find it odd that some of these guys think that they own the road and parking lot. As I drive more and more in this truck, I find that many of them just don’t have a clue what is going on around them and that there are others who are, well more important than they are. Like the guy who has to do 75 or 80, sorry but you should not be on the road and this is why I think that higher fines for abusive speeding should be country wide – I know I didn’t make any friends with that one. It’s my road, it’s my parking spot, it is my right to sit in the fuel isle and shop – BS.
Shopping at Wal-Mart in Tennessee, I was going down the isle and saw a guy talking to himself in Spanish. He later dropped his pants and started to do his business in the middle of the isle between men’s and boys clothing. I later learned that he was a mental patient who is also an invader and they can’t deport him.
I go through some of the stores now that Christmas is approaching fast and watch parents do frantic shopping – where they have to but that perfect gift for the brats. What gets me is when they are on the phone, yanking things off the shelf and ignoring people as they run into them or stand in their way. I watched as one lady was in line and a guy behind her was patently waiting for her to get off the phone to pay for her stuff. I think he had enough when he grabbed the phone, hung it up and threw it in her bags. This is not the first time I saw this happen, a few weeks ago when some lady was fed up with a kid who was sitting in the isle blocking it while reading, she took the phone, hung it up and flung it down the isle to get the kid off her a**.
When I use a bathroom I have been double checking lately to make sure I go into the right one. One day I am at McDonalds buying my health food and before I order I went to the bathroom. Mind you that this is in the heart of dysfunction Tennessee and there are two really picture perfect families out in the dining area. So I am doing my business and here come in one of the girls who belong to one of the families. She just uses the urinal while I and two others watch. We all checked the sign and wondered what part of MEN she didn’t understand. One of the guys told the manager and the manger said to us that this has happened before with these people.
Speaking of McDonalds, I had to deal with another rather dumb manager on the road. She took my order, I swiped my card and I got change back. I tried to explain to her that I wasn’t supposed to get change back but she said I paid and she was not to except tips. I have no clue what that meant but hey an extra $7 is nice.
The other McDonalds thing has been messing up my order and using my first name to tell me my order is ready. I have gotten a lot of free food in the past month, but the first name thing bugs me because I have had twice that I happened to stand next to another Greg and the people make behind the counter make a big deal out of it – just read the order and we can figure it out ourselves.
I love truckers, especially after my Florida trip. It must be Florida that the sunshine makes people rude because I dropped off in the sunshine state and was stuck in my parking spot by a broken down truck that was also blocking the entrance way. About four of us were there being blocked and no one except me went over to ask if he needed help. He said that the company will be sending out service and thanked me for the offer. The other truckers were not sympathetic, a bunch yelled at him, a few went over the lawn to get by him and others just looked plain stupid staring at him.
The second I love truckers thing has been fueling up. Yesterday I fueled up at the pilot ex 19 on I 20. I just don’t get the thing of pulling into the fuel isle, parking your truck and going into the truck stop only to return 45 minutes later, I feel guilty if I have to go to the bathroom and spend 5 minutes there – get in, fuel up and get out of the way. But the 45 minute thing seems to happen a lot, all rude behavior. Well I got stuck behind a lady trucker who for all intent and purpose had to fuel up, go do her business, go do some shopping (I kid you not and no it has nothing to do with gender) and buy something to eat while I finished fueling and wanted to leave so the four others behind me could fuel. Someone went in there and got her to move her truck, so what the H*ll does she do? She goes around the entire lot and back to the fuel isles to park and went back in. there were plenty of open spaces at the time – lazy and rude.
The third I love truckers thing is watching some try to park some of these monster trucks. The other day (and this has happened often) I watched someone with a nice big KW with a nice long LONG wheel base with a nice very long trailer and with a nice very small sleeper try to park in the spot sort of next to me. Mind you there was a storage trailer between the spots but still he worked at it for 35 minutes trying to get the trailer passed the edge of the storage trailer, he even had a helper but for some reason with over 70 feet between the idle aire barriers and the edge of the parking spots he just couldn’t do it. I have no sympathy for someone who buys such a truck to fill their egos. I have had a few times when a trucker with a long trailer looked at me like I was at fault and a few times I even moved my little truck all the way back in the spot so they can get in but still they could not make it.
The fourth I love truckers thing is clutter, I just don’t get it. I mean I sat next to a truck in Alabama and the entire front seats were filled with junk, everything from shoe boxes to an animal cage. I walked past one at one truck stop in Indiana with newspapers stacked up and another that had garbage bags filled with something all over the place. Ok I don’t have the best organized truck on the road, right now I am looking at my books and USA today sitting on the floor in my cab but I also clean my cab at least every week (floor windows and dash get vacuumed and wiped down) but some of these truckers are just plain pigs.
The fifth I love truckers thing is somewhat disgusting too but strange. I use the proper tool for the proper job, including urinals and toilets. I have discussed this with a few and don’t get it, why would someone use the one of two toilets to pee and pee everywhere on the floor and seat while there are 15 urinals with no one around(except me in the other stall doing my business)? I mean I find this an odd behavior, maybe because I am used to doing the right thing – I don’t know? Well when I thought about this, the next opportunity (yes I was bored that day doing my business) I decided to count how many used the toilet instead of the urinal, and to my surprise out of 15 people, 7 used the toilet. Out of those 7 only 3 shut the door and out of those 7, every one of them made a mess. Oh out of those 7, 2 washed their hands.
The sixth I love truckers thing is really not about truckers but truck stops. I was reading T/A’s magazine Road King November/December issue, while waiting for my PM to get done. I started with the articles and when I was called to pick up my truck I parked I in a spot. Mind you I am in Winslet NC at the T/A and figure that they would be like the T/A I stayed at in southern GA, always running around with a vacuum golf cart thing but no way. I look around while I am parking and it is a mess here. So I park, grab the magazine and start at the beginning. There was something in the driving it home section about the problems of litter and filth being associated with truckers and how we are going to end up paying for the reputation. It strikes me that T/A needs to take the words of M J Green of Irving TX and take pride in their facility. This is the dirtiest truck stop I have yet been in and T/A knows it now.
The last I love truckers thing is the idea that I and other straight truck drivers need to move their truck out of the parking spot because someone can’t find a parking spot. I have had this happen to me twice and both times by someone who worked for a major trucking company. I ignored the request. But I find it odd that some of these guys think that they own the road and parking lot. As I drive more and more in this truck, I find that many of them just don’t have a clue what is going on around them and that there are others who are, well more important than they are. Like the guy who has to do 75 or 80, sorry but you should not be on the road and this is why I think that higher fines for abusive speeding should be country wide – I know I didn’t make any friends with that one. It’s my road, it’s my parking spot, it is my right to sit in the fuel isle and shop – BS.
