Richmond to Phoenix, Day 7, Part 4 Dallas -Trucks

January 3, 2012

TRUCKS AND TRUCKERS...
...Life on the Road.

We arrived early enough for a good walk. BOY! Is this ever a BUSY truck stop!!! It's my favorite time of day at a bustling truckstop! We walked around and watched trucks pulling in and parking and going out. It was steady! I waved at 2 women in a bobtail (cab without a trailer) as they drove around and parked. Took LOTS of pictures. And videos of all the action. There's a sample video below, that will give you a sense of the activity.

Hangin' out with the big boys!  And gals! 

No explanations or captions necessary here.

RHONDA

One lady trucker named Rhonda waved and we stopped to talk with her. She posed with her wolf hat, and the three of us visited for awhile, till it got cold and she was ready to go in and eat lime-pepper tilapia at Denny's. That's the only thing she eats, the same thing every time. (boring!). Rhonda says she has an engineering degree and loves to design and build, but she likes trucking better and it pays better! Her degree, she says, is in Manufacturing Engineering. I think she comes from an auto manufacturing town. She says her degree is not NOT an industrial engineering degree---it's a completely different animal!!!

HERE'S THAT VIDEO CLIP I PROMISED YOU!
See the white bobtail at the end, if you look carefully you can see the lady driver wave.  *If the video opens in a window too large, press Ctrl +0 to reduce it and push the play button. You will have to pause it if it hesitates and let it load, or drag the button back to start and lie it catch up! Then watch it from the beginning.  It really gives you an idea of what it's like at one of the busy truck stops.

http://youtu.be/TYFhPNf32Fg

We actually got back to the RV without getting run over! That's no small feat in a place like this! I can tell that it's going to be a noisy night here. Not sure how early Michael will want to leave, as we are east of the city, so may have morning traffic. We only have about 4-1/2 hours driving time but want to get there early to make an appointment for the vehicle inspections. [It turned out to be a quiet place, we slept soooo well, and we did not encounter much morning traffic, as we were actually south of Dallas.]

Early supper, hot, home-cooked meal: meatloaf (again) and black beans w/quinoa. And a Caesar salad in a bag. No pots and pans, no cooking. Can't beat that! I ALWAYS wash bagged salad greens, but this time I decided to trust the claims on the bag, so I added the dressing, shook the bag well, re-added tomatoes and croutons. Voila! No muss, no fuss; translate that "No Dishes!"

That's it! The end of another day of adventure on the road!