18WT #077 - Pulling In For The Night, What's Your Favorite Place To Set Your Brakes!

Welcome to the 18 Wheel Talk Podcast show. Welcome. That wasn't a scene, was it? I don't know. I'll have to go back and look at it. I hope not. Don't worry. I could edit it. Not You would never edit that out of all the things. Oh no. You would never edit that. Edit that out. Definitely not editing that out.

That's staying into video evidence that Janet burps you would not get rid of. Oh hell no. I marked the calendar. Are you kidding? Janet Belched on air. It wasn't like that. Welcome to the 18 Wheel Talk podcast show. Welcome. Welcome. We are your hosts. I'm Patrick and over Yonder there's Janet. Welcome. Welcome. Say hi, Janet.

Hi Janet whats up. Not me, Not me, apparently. What do you mean not me? You're up. Well, that's usually my response when you ask. Yeah. Right. I'm just so used to saying, not me. Not me. Not me. Excuse me. Had a ribit in my throat. You had a ribit in your throat. Hey, who? Any who. Welcome to the show. If this is your first time listening to us, congratulations.

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Why do they wanna sign up for our fan club, Janet? Oh. Because we're having a big giveaway. Yep. Celebrating four years. So we wanna give stuff to you for our celebration. Yeah. We're not, why? Why do we, you guys should be giving us gifts. Why should we give you guys gifts? It's, it's like our birthday and we're giving stuff away.

It's backwards. How's that working? Yeah. Right. Do we have stuff to give away? Well, yeah. You're good at spending money. In case you haven't noticed. I spend money. I don't know what you're talking about. You spend, listen, I save, we all know the system. I, I don't know what you're talking about. Power inverters.

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Every title has to have the word SmackDown in it. I'm on a SmackDown kick. I can't help it. Oh my God. But we haven't watched, I watched one SmackDown video and that's it. She's, let's, let's add that to the title. SmackDown. So what Fan Club SmackDown. So what do we, Ooh, that'd be interesting. What are we taco in about today?

We, well, it's not Taco Tuesday. I know. Oh, it could be. Maybe. I like tacos. Well, I was gonna tell you something about Taco Bell. Well, what They're giving away a free, nacho, Dorito taco, loco thing to people. When, um, when, when, when? Starting soon. And it ends in like October. Like it may start next week or this week, and it ends in like, beginning of October.

Okay. Yeah. Is that something about baseball? Uh, no. It's just you just like go and ask, I guess. Oh, you don't? Yeah. Just, oh, we'll have to look into that one when, when they run out, because I like, I like tacos. Yeah. He, yeah, I know. Anyways, he'll be having tacos for breakfast if you're, if you're, if you're listening to us in your ears.

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long, long time. I know. Long, long time. What are we talking about today? I was just gonna ask you that. What are we talking about today besides Dingdong? Dingdong? Well, tell me when you were driving over the road. Okay. Long, Long time ago, that was a long, long time, time ago. Many, many moons ago. Where did you park your rig?

Where did you set your brakes At night. You know? What was your, your go-to place? Oh, I liked how you did the air brakes down. Yeah. Uh, usually a truck stop. Favorite? Uh, did you have one? It depended on, uh, I know that the company I worked for, we had to fuel it. Uh, TAs. Okay. Travel America. Was it Travel?

Travel America. Yeah, but it was something of America, travel Centers of America is what it used to be. Go. Yeah. Then they just went, now they're just ta. Travel America. Travel America. So anyways, to answer your question, TA truck stops. Oh, okay. Good to know. For the most part. Mm-hmm. You know, um, if there was room, I'd park there for a night.

'cause 90% of the time I'd get fuel loop around, park it, go in shower as I say, shit, shower, shave. Eat dinner. When were you shaving? Never. Like when you were 10. Um, never. Listen, it's taken me years to get this hair this long. Your hair is beautiful, baby. I know, not It is like, it's flawless. Flawless, perfect.

It's like a sheen of wonder. I know. Oh, I like the way that sounded. It's a sheen of wonder. Sheen of wonder. As smooth as a baby's ass. Well, I wasn't quite going there. You didn't wanna go there? I was. At least baby butts have fuzz. At least. At least you know, it's as shiny as one cheek anyways.

So you're telling me to turn the other cheek? Yeah. Alright, let's get on with it. Yes, we were talking about, you know, how so anyways, I used to park at ta. Truck stops. How about you? Wherever I felt like. Yeah, I'm, I'm saying I really, no, I'm just, it was rare that I parked on the side of the road like an off ramp.

Mm-hmm. You know? Uh, but like I said, 90% of the time I would have to say if I wasn't rolling down the road, I would park for the night at a TA truck stop. 'cause I most likely got just got done fueling up. Yeah, that makes sense. See, I was allowed to fuel wherever I wanted, so that was is really rare in truck driving.

Yeah, I know that. Yep. And. If I was doing a short haul, like say New York to Chicago. Okay. I simply, I know short haul, um, you do a short haul. Yeah. New York to Chicago. That's short. Yeah. Well, yeah. That's a regional, yeah, that's a regional drive. Um, I would fuel up and stop for the night, usually at the TA there off of I 80, just inside Indiana before I got into Chicago.

Okay. 80, 90, you know the switch? Yeah. Right there. Yeah. But like if I was going south, like in through Pennsylvania, there's a, um, in through Pencil Tucky, yeah. Into Penntucky. Um, there's, um, um, um, You know, there's some Penntuckians out there that's gonna be pissed off at us. There's a flying hook that's like, you wind up the hill to get to the flying hook, but you have to go up a big hill to get to it.

Yep. And, but it was real big when it was real nice one. And that was like a favorite. So it depended on where I was going because like in the south, um, there was, um, love's was real big in the south, so Okay. It was hard to find others. And when you get out west, it's a whole different thing. And like around, say, Illinois, Southern Indiana, Kentucky.

Um, Missouri Road Rangers are Big Missouri. I got family in that site. I know. They're miserable, aren't they? No, actually, I'm kidding. My mom's cousin Wilbur lived there. Uh, I'm kidding. He was really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, the Ozarks are there. Mm-hmm. And he did something, they did there too, but it wasn't any cocaine or nothing like that.

What? Nothing. He laundered money? No. made moonshine. Oh my gosh. Oh, oh, okay. Just moonshine, just moonshine. Anyway, so any who? For me, because I did coast to coast Canada. Okay. It really depended what region I was going to, to what I stopped at and like if I was going in through Jersey. You go straight down, 87 in New York.

Okay. And then it turns into 2 87 when you go straight. Um, yeah, I think so. You go up the hill, you know what I'm talking? Yeah. Instead of turning towards New York City, you go up the hill. Yeah. 2 87, uh, to 80 I think it is. Or 84. Well, but if you go oh, 80 f you go down, it's 87. You go past Interstate 84. Yeah.

And instead of turning towards New York City, yeah, you go straight down into Jersey. It was two eighty seven to Does your phone have a map? I don't know. Anyway. Anyway, anyways. Instead of turning towards New New York City, I'd go straight down into Jersey. Yeah, you have to go over, you have to go like kind of like a little, a little bit around and then down, and then it turned into, I think it was 80.

It would meet up. with 80, yeah. Down there. But it also would meet up with the, uh, jersey turnpike down at the bottom. Yeah. Okay. Isn't that 80? The Jersey Turnpike? Yeah. No. Oh, I thought it was no. My, my mistake. Yes. Anyways, I always got on 80, I believe. I believe 95 is Jersey turn. I always, I always came 2 87, got on 80 and then ran into the, uh, Pennsylvania, the PennKentucky Turnpike.

You're breaking my brain here. Can I finish? Sorry? When you went down to New York. Okay. Throughway, which is 87, instead of following 87 towards New York City. Okay. When it split off and said go straight for New Jersey. Yep. Go left for New York City. Mm-hmm. I'd go straight for New Jersey. Okay. And then when you get into Jersey, you go up the hill.

Mm-hmm. And there's truck parking on the right hand side. Yeah. And everybody says, oh, don't park there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you're talking. I'd park right there. Gotcha. Because truck stops from there to the south of Jersey are like near and none. Yeah. While there are some in the rest areas, the cars take 'em.

I know. Which drove me nuts. Yeah. Because they short drive. But that area, the cars are known for taking. Up the truck parking because it's the Jersey Turnpike and nobody paid attention and nobody cared. So I'd park on the side of the shoulder up there because it's, the shoulder is like three or four trucks wide.

I agree. Yeah. And I'd, as long as we block you in and you're good, people would say, you know, it's not safe, you're gonna get robbed. And I'd be like, bitch, please meet Maybelline. Bish bish. Yeah. I'm trying not to cuss Yo. bish bish meet, Maybelline. You wanna rob me? You go for it because go for it. You know? I know. So anyways, let's, let's move on.

So let's get on with a show, darling. Yes. And if we lived in a perfect world, okay. Every driver could be either home at night, every night, or able to set those breaks on the big rib. Big rig anyways in the location of their choice every night. Right. You know, but we don't live in a perfect world. So, um, some drivers, they choose to be in a different state every night.

Yeah. You know, others wanna be home every night. Well, it also also depends on where the load's going. Well, yeah, I just saying, you know, I think, I think that has a, a lot to do with it. Yeah. But there's some that say, well, if I had the perfect job, I'd be, you know, I'd be a long haul style driver. Where I never had to touch my freight, but I wouldn't be dropping hook.

Well set up and I'd be home every night. That's why I like, you know, hauling, flatbed because I didn't have to touch the freight. I had to tarp it. But you had to tarp it. Yeah, but I didn't have to offload it. That shit was too heavy. Yeah, see, gas and oil was easy. If I got a oil load like up to Ticonderoga, 'cause it was a one-stop shop, you know?

Mm-hmm. It's like, yeah. Long haul up. Even though it wasn't that many miles, it was a long haul. Oh boy, that loaded. Mm-hmm. You know, but anyway. Any who, so that brings up the next question. Okay. You wanna ask you don't me to ask? No, you keep going. You're doing great. How drivers choose the truck stop. They stop at.

Okay. You know? Um, so non-drivers or newbies, new drivers, they think, well, they're all the same or, but Yeah, but they're not. Yeah. Or it doesn't matter, does it? It does. I mean, to each his own. Yeah. Some truck stops are bigger, better than other truck, truck stops. Newer, there are the, the, you know, the mom and pops I guess, which I love, you know, which are more down to earth more.

Mm-hmm. Family oriented. I think family oriented may not be as new, but boy, you talk about a great place to stop you. Different type of food. Mm-hmm. You know, and I always took that into consideration when I, when I was stopping for the night, depending on where I was. Mm-hmm. You know, if I had food with me, that's one thing.

If I didn't and I actually had to stop to, to be able to eat. Yeah. There was only certain ones that, you know, I knew what they had on the menu, uh, certain days of the week and I'm going, oh, oh no, I'm going to the Ranger. Ricks over there because they got a. They got a meatloaf melt to die for or something, you know?

You know what I mean? Yeah. And there's so many options out there. Things that make a driver go, Hmm, well, well I like mama j's truck stop on the south side of I 10 there because they have everything I need to get ready for the next day. Right. Even though they're not a big name brand, but most truck stops do.

Do. Yes. So, but sometimes you. You want that home? Some drivers want that great big truck stop because they want everything modern. They want everything. Perfect. What's that one there in in Iowa? The big, big, big one? The I 80 truck stop. Yeah. Yeah. That one. Everyone just knows it as the I 80 truck stop. It's been bought out by ta.

Was it? Yeah, I think TA is the one that owns it currently. Well, either way, it's still the biggest, it's the biggest in the US and it's the I 80 truck stop, and I've been there many, many times. Yeah. I That's the Iowa 80. Yeah. World's largest truck stop. And I, I don't believe I've ever been by there. I've been there because I used to, not even, not even coming across when, when we came across, you know, Iowa.

Well, because we didn't go there, because we were on 90. Yeah. Oh, you and not you and I, no, when I moved, when I moved my sister to, to Las Vegas mm-hmm. We came across 90, you know, through Iowa and Nebraska. Mm-hmm. And boy was that boring territory. But anyways, it's not boring. One ear of corn, two ears of corn.

200 ears of corn. Yeah. 300,000 ears of corn. Yeah, exactly. Don't three, try 300,000 pieces of corn. Yeah. That's And beans and beans. And And it really rain. That's that. That goes sideways. Yeah, it does. It rolls through the corn fields. That's right. That was fun, and tornadoes. But anyway, it wasn't a tornado.

Well, there it was not a tornado. It was not tornado season. No. Thank God. That makes it fun. Oh that was, it was fun. 'cause I was driving a little shit box U-Haul. It wasn't a big U-haul. It was a small, tiny Toyota U-Haul. And boy, we come across Nebraska and you saw the rain. Coming through the field, you're like, oh, it's coming.

It's coming. And it rocked us. I mean, it was like, I, I couldn't see the hood. It, it rained so hard. I couldn't see the hood in front of me. I believe it. But see, I've had problems with U-Haul twice in my life once when we moved out here. Yeah. But was that U-Haul or was that Penske? That was U-Haul, I thought.

No, I thought it was a Penske. I don't remember. Anyways, I forget who it was we were with. And then once moving to Wyoming, which is all uphill, once you get to a certain point, oh, and the transmission wouldn't go past third gear. Oh yeah. That was fun the last 200 miles. I bet I lost track of what we, what we were doing anyway.

So we're talking about picking truck stop. Oh yeah, exactly, exactly. We forgot the bell dinging. I know. Story's over ding. Okay. But yeah, we were talking about the I 80 and how people pick up. So the I 80 truck stop is wonderful, but like there's a small, um, road ranger truck stop in Springfield, Illinois, and I like it just as much as any truck stop.

Got it. And it's, it's like a mom and pop truck stop. Yeah. It's the parking in it is dirt. At least it was the last time I was there. Hey, some truck stop. So like that, it was dirt the first time I was there and I was probably in diapers the first time I was there. And the reason why is 'cause it's easy to grate out and smooth it down.

Yeah. And yeah, it's, rather than blacktop it, it's re blacktop it and then re blacktop it, you know? Yeah. Long as the trucks can park, This is true, but it's got homecooked food, easy in, easy out, reasonable prices on the food, reasonable prices on the fuel, and good coffee. There you go. And you, if you've got somewhere in town you wanna be, they'll let you park the rig there and they'll keep an eye on things and they're not real picky about it, you know?

They're like, oh, okay. That's fine. You're parked here, you're fueled here. I'm good with that. Nice. Yeah, it's a good place. Yeah. You spent your money here you got it. Sure, no problem. You keep your trailer here. Plus it was really close to my Aunt Fern's house. Ah-huh. Okay, so, so what is that? Everything that, that, you know, that they talk about.

Easy on and off. Okay. Of a highway, freeway, whatever you're on. Okay. So interstate, so depending on who we're talking to. Yeah. They want easy on and off out. Everyone wants to be able to get on and off the road quickly. Yeah, exactly. You don't wanna have to pull 15 miles off your route to get back on. Right.

Just to go to a truck stop. Yeah. Um, you want a good parking lot with, without a lot of potholes. And even if it's dirt, it doesn't mean it has potholes, right. That one. Oh yeah. No, I, yeah, like I said, it sometimes the, you know, the dirt lots were better, easier to maintain and, um, size of the parking lot, but it also, that's compared to the size of the area you're going to, like that truck stop pulls, I don't know, 20 or 30 trucks probably.

Which one? The, um, road ranger in Springfield, Illinois. Okay. Yeah. 'cause I think the one that's a maybe, but I think the Iowa 80 holds 900. Yeah. Or at least like the one in Erie, Pennsylvania. The TA in Pennsylvania holds probably 500. Oh yeah. Yeah. That holds a lot too. But the road ranger for the area it's in and the, uh, there's other truck stops.

Mm-hmm. It's always busy that you can always find a parking spot. Et cetera. Right. So it's appropriately sized for where it's at. Right? Right. Okay. Um, no lot lizards, no buffalo.

What is that sigh about? It wasn't high on my list. Well, it's high on my list. I'm just saying it wasn't high on my list. It doesn't mean I, I I looked for lot lizards or buffalo. I don't like people waking me up banging on my truck. I, I agree. But when you're tired, you're tired. Yeah. And when you wake up easy, you wake up easy.

I agree. But I didn't wake up easy. I do. In case you haven't noticed. So you're next. Sorry. You know, not a lot of noise from the area. Obviously that doesn't matter to you, does to me, Mr. I don't wake up easy. Mm-hmm. Look, this, this coming from somebody who slept through a goddamn tornado. Only three. Gimme a break.

Uhhuh, tornadoes are different. Uhhuh? Uh, I'm used to tornadoes. That's you're used. Different. Your, alright, so your husband was full of hot air, is that what you're saying? Hey, your ex, I mean, Tornadoes are? Is that what you're used to? I grew up in the tornado belt, basically. Oh, we saw 'em all the time. It's no big deal.

It's just a tornado. Nothing. It's just a tornado. It's just a tornado. I've done tornadoes and hurricanes. The only natural disaster I haven't done besides your family is earthquakes. Ah. I, I survived my family's natural disasters. I can survive anyways. Uhhuh. Anyways. Alright, so, so not a lot of noise.

Mm-hmm. You know, except from other trucks, obviously. Yeah. Uh, which is funny because if you're a flat better and you're parked next to a reefer, according to my dad, you'll move. If a reefer pulls in there, oh no. If I got a good spot, I'm not moving, my dad would move. If a reefer parked next to him, he'd be like, oh, no, no, no.

I'm moving. It woke him up. Yeah. Him and I could never park next to each other in the truck stops. Uh uh, another thing is, is, is I didn't pay for parking ever. Yeah. I didn't either. If I went into a parking lot that was paid, there was a TA that had a gated parking lot that you had to pay to get in. Mm-hmm.

Unless you fueled. There's, that's how the gate paid ones are is, that's what I was gonna say is the ones that I went into that were paid, it was you either spent so much in their store and restaurant or fueled for so much. Yeah. And then you just showed the receipts when you left and there was no charge.

Right. If you didn't have receipts to show what you spent, they charged you. Right. But I was really picky when I had to pay for parking. Mm-hmm. If there was a problem finding a parking spot, I'd be right up there calling the gate saying I can't find a parking spot and I know I'm paying for one. You better get out here and find me a parking spot.

Yeah. Find me a spot, motherfucker. I'm not spending two hours driving around your parking spot lot finding one. Find me one. Yeah. Find me one. I'm not wasting all my off time price of fuel. Ah, don't get me started. Well, I mean, back in the day, back when we drove, the price of fuel wasn't outrageous. Well, it kind of was.

It was for then. Yeah. But it wasn't, you know. Yeah. I mean, your company paid for fuel. My company paid for fuel. So I mean, it wasn't out of our pockets unless the card didn't work and you needed fuel and they were gonna reimburse you, which did happen several times. Yeah. And that gets expensive on a trip to California.

I agree. You know, Cal New York to California are actually Montreal to. LA That's a long trip to have to pay for fuel. I knew drivers that if the card didn't work, the truck didn't move, get the card working until, because I ain't got it to put it in. Well, luckily I did. So I put it in and I just made it very plain.

There better be some money waiting for me when I got to my destination and they made sure was money on the other side or I ain't dropping this load. No, at least not in the loading dock you wanted in. I always knew that they'd pull it through. They were good. So anyways, but anyway, continue darling Fuel Island cleanliness.

Knowing that when you went to get the stuff to wash your windows, uh oh yeah. Knowing there wasn't fuel all over because there's nothing worse than stepping outta your truck and slipping and fuel and oil. I say that's one thing that loves, does, does pretty good. Yeah, they're they're pretty clean. They are flying J used to be pretty decent. Yeah, it depends. I, I've heard that it depends part on the flying J for the Yeah, for the most part, the, you know, most of the truck stops that I ever went to were pretty, but pretty, pretty good at keeping the area clean is what I'm trying to get at. So my opinion on all of this is it's not just the chain, it's the location, right?

Just like a chain restaurant, you can have the greatest chain restaurant in the world. Yep. And you're gonna always have a great one and a horrible one. You have. Depends on the area, like you said. Yeah. Who am I keeping you up, Johnny? I thought I was gonna sneeze, fool you. I was like, oh, that, that was a yawn.

So you're boring me. So. Well he, while, I've bored him to yawns and he's gotta take a drink. So clean showers are really important and I like clean towels provided. And that if you're team driving that they provide towels for both team members. Most places don't re don't push that, but when you're a team driver and ask for it, they'll say, oh, okay, I get it.

Here you go. Oh yeah, I'm not sharing. I'm not sharing his towel. Hell no. Or her towel. But some places will be, well, here's proof that we're a team driver. You're fine. Log books, you know, or whatever proves that. Yeah. Other places will be like, oh no, here's your towel. You know? Yeah. But most of the time you guys aren't taking a shower together.

Well, I never team drove, so, you know, I, but some, I was, I was with a trainer, so it was like we got own showers. That's my point. But you, when you've got your showers, it's usually, this is the truck, this is the fuel line, and here's your towel, here's your fuel ticket. Remember? Yeah. Here's my fuel receipt.

Here's your towel, Uhhuh. It's not just you walk in and get a towel and a shower. I gotcha. You prove that you got fuel for a free shower. Yeah, I got you. Okay. I'm like, you fall off the face of the earth there, Patrick. Maybe. Okay. So when you get fuel, they give you a receipt. When you get the shower, you show, here's my receipt for fuel.

I'd like to get a shower. We're team drivers. We would like two showers, please. And they're pretty good about it. Yes. When you, I understood what you were saying. Okay. I wasn't sure you understood the words coming outta my mouth. Wow. I, okay. Nobody understands the damn thing that comes outta your mouth sometimes.

Click. You can't click me. I know you can click me. I can click you in it. So most places where I was going was are really good about it because even though I always took a towel, an extra towel with me because my long hair, they're, most of 'em say, Hey, I see you got really long hair. Do you want an extra towel for your hair?

And I was a solo driver and I'd be like, oh, that's great. Thank you. So, oh, that'd be wonderful much. Yeah. I really appreciate that. Sure. 'cause I do, I could use an extra towel. For your hair. Yeah.

Good Lord. Help me, please. Baby Jesus. God, Jesus. Help her. Jesus, there's no help for you. That's 'cause I live with you. Okay. On to the next thing. The next thing is, wait a minute. Good food, good service is important and I really like one that has a truckers only section. Yeah. In the restaurant. Yeah. Um, I have seen a few of those.

Yeah. I, I know that the TA in Erie, Pennsylvania used to, uh, the one, um, there was a TA by the, in New York, uh, I think it's Middletown 84. Yeah. Right there. They had a, a truckers area. I always liked the trucker section. I got a lot of free meals. What? Hey, no lot lizards are aloud in here. That's right. Oh, really?

Well, can I please speak with your manager please? Yeah. Here's my C D L. Here's my fuel receipt. I'm parked out there. Did you wanna give me a free meal or have me sue you? What did you want? How big a steak did you want ma'am? Yeah. Oh this one? 'cause then I can feed my dog too Uhhuh. Mm-hmm. Um, and free coffee with your fuel receipt or breakfast in the morning.

You know, being able to fill up your free right thermos. Yep. Because, you know, well, most of the time if, if I went in, sat down and ate and I had my thermos, thermos or travel mug or whatever with me, they would usually top that off for me. But some places, now remember, I came from a hotel and restaurant background that had truck stops attached uhhuh, and the one thing that I had a hard time breaking some of the chains of okay, was when truckers would come in with that thermos filling it up.

Oh, no, no, no. Filling it up and then putting it automatically on the receipt as a $2 50 cent charge. Ooh. I'm like, oh, no, no, no. That's at least four cups of coffee. They, but they filled up, they ate dinner. They ate breakfast and now you wanna also charge them $2 and 50 cents for coffee. And coffee's the cheapest thing in the world.

I know, right? Oh no, you take that right off there. I removed it from all of my registers. Oh, they, they could not fill you. Give them, they could not charge for thermos. You give that to 'em for free. They're, they're delivering commodities, baby. I'm like, I is like, no, we do not charge for coffee. And I'm so sorry that she tried charging you for that.

What? Yeah. So Well, I do like, you know, good coffee. Yeah, I do too. And, and, and a nice convenience store. 'cause you always Yep. You know, there's always something. There's always something that you know. Well, not Janet. Janet never left her home without everything. She had everything and everything. She never needed to go to the convenience store for anything.

You were never in. Well, I take that back. You were in my truck, but you were never in my truck at a convenience store. I'm just saying Janet. Janet always says to me, I'd never forget anything ever. Bull malarkey. That's what I used to say. I used to say bullshit. I call bullshit red flag on the play. I did not say that I brought as much as I could.

I know. And I'm a list maker unlike somebody I know. I know. That's why I said obviously Janet forgot something on the list at some point. 'cause this convenience store's on the list.

Oh, anyways, uh, a a a definite good convenience store that has the essentials that truckers would need. Yeah. It's always good if they've got the little extra things to too, 'cause, because not every, you know, it's like antacids. Aspirin, Tylenol, ibuprofen, stuff like that. Fuel rags. Yeah. Yeah. Little stuff stuff.

Little stuff to clean your truck with you. Now you break, you break a ratchet strap, you gotta replace it. Yeah. Load. You know, so it's nice that they, if they have a little bit of truck section too. Yeah. Not just stuff to make you pretty and I was just giving you crap. Mm-hmm. Uh, don't suck your teeth in like that.

Don't know what y'all are talking about, Patrick. Anyway. Hey, hey. Do us a favor, you know, YouTube hasn't been pushing us through to, through the, the algorithm. Give us a, like, give us a thumbs up on the video, please. Yeah, you could go in and see how Patrick's picking on me today. That'd be awesome. You can go see how Patrick's picking on Janet today.

I don't, I don't, I don't believe it. But anyways, he's too far away. I can't smack him. He moved his chair. The horror. Anyways, continue parts. Counter garage and garage. Part parts. Counter and garage. You said parts? Counter garage. Oh, parts Counter. Parts. Counter and garage. Garage. It's as a convenience. Yes.

That would be nice. Well, because I was, 'cause heaven forbid something does break. Yeah. Because also I was on the road so much that I never made it back to our shop that often to do, have them do things like. Oil change, you know what, et cetera. So I tended to have 'em done on the road, and if I could get into a Pete shop, I would.

Yep. Because then I always knew I gotta stay in a motel and yada, yada, yada. Of course, yeah. Your truck's down, you gotta, they gotta put you up for the night and um, that means you get a goodnight sleep and then they always did all the little extras and, um, but otherwise just, Hey, pull it in. I'm gonna be eating, lemme know when it's done.

Mm-hmm. Y'all. Yeah. Uhhuh. Um, I also like the good driver's lounge. Yeah, me too. Most driver's lounges have TVs and, and like a couple of video games or something for entertainment. Yeah. And uh, some of them have. Or used to have, um, treadmills, ellipticals, and something like that over in a corner. Like a mini, a mini exercise room, but where you could watch TV while you're doing it.

Yep. And that's where people would always find me was standing on the, you know, walking on the treadmill. Watching tv. Watching tv. Yeah. And, and, and some, and load boards. Yeah. And some of 'em have load boards. Yeah. I think we did a, didn't we do a podcast about load boards or No. I think we touched base on 'em at, I think we've touched base and said we should do a podcast.

And I think that's on release. I know we did a podcast called Know Your Load and I think that was part of it. Yeah. But then we were gonna, you know, do another, yeah. All right. Future episode. Future episode on how to read a load board. There we go. My daddy taught me. So anyways, so with all those needs to fulfill, truckers have options of local area truck stops.

Yep. Or the big nationwide chains. Kinda like we were saying mom and pop board Nationwide Yep. Is on your side. So if we missed your favorite truck stop, we are so sorry. And I'm, well, email us at thehosts@eighteenwheeltalk.com. Tell us what we missed. That's thehosts@eighteenwheeltalk.com. Could you spell that for me?

That's T H E H O S T S. thehosts@eighteenwheeltalk.com. are you Sure, send us an email. Are you sure? Yeah, I'm pretty damn damn sure. Just making sure. And if you, and if that's too difficult, go to 18 wheel talk.com and click on ask the show tab and say why did you, you know, and in the message put, why'd you leave my truck stop out episode, whatever episode number this is very good.

I like that idea. Yeah. So there, so there's, there are so many great truck stops. So we decided not to even try to attempt. All the name, all of them. Um, but we do have a few of our favorites written down that between us, we've, we've, um, stopped at these and, but it's just really the, I think I stopped at just about all of 'em except the roadies.

I've been to roadies, but Yeah. Well, you got the ta, which is Travel. It's now Travel America. Travel America. Travel Centers of America. Yeah. Uh, Petro. Petro, which is now part of. Ah, I think, I think, I think it's Ta Petro. Could be. And then I think Pilot and Flying J are together. Yeah, I think so. Um, Love's Is Still Loves.

Yep. And then you got Road Ranger if they're still around. They are. I know they're still in Springfield. I talked to my cousin enough to know that. Yeah. Am Best was another big one. Yeah. Oh, I forgot about them. But yeah, they are. Um, and most people think of them as a gas station, but there's also an AM Best is a truck stop too, right?

Yeah, they have a, they have a fuel line for big riggers. Yeah, they do. Usually like said roadies and usually some parking and roadies is another one that I, I don't think I've ever stopped at a roadies, but yeah, I have just been a long, I've stopped at almost everything. I mean, because my dad would say, oh, meet me here.

And I'm like, where's that? Yeah. Right. Where what I've never heard is that a truck stop, dad? Or is that a hole in the wall? Yeah. Right. Oh, it's a truck stop. Trust me, it's a truck stop. Then you pull in and you go, holy shit. How did I not know about this? Well, it's okay. You talk about truck stops you didn't know existed.

Yeah. Taken, um, I 90 out of New York, towards Massachusetts and then that, whatever, I think it's one of the nine routes. Okay. Towards the, um, border Uhhuh. It's like the last one. And you take a, um, get off the exit and you go north and it's that little bitty truck stop that's right there. Okay. Do you know where I'm talking about?

I, I think so. It's like a hole on the wall. There's like nothing there, but it's a truck stop. Yeah. It. I swear to God. It looks like it's got one pump sitting out in the middle of nowhere and one little bitty building that looks like an out. Oh, careful. Before you cross into Massachusetts. Yeah. It looks like a, it looks like an outhouse.

It's actually, it's actually bigger than that now. Oh, okay. Last time I saw it, it looked like an outhouse with a, with a gas pump. Yeah, that was that. Yeah. I think it, I think the main part of the building, which was the outhouse is still there and they just added, that's about how big it looked. Okay. It had one pump in an outhouse.

Nothing else but just an dirt. Get on, get out. And that was it. Okay. But the right across the street, they sell really good vegetables and flowers. Uh, yeah, I believe, I believe that's still there. Yeah. Oh, that was really nice though. Uhhuh. Ding. Story time's over. No, I was explaining like, I couldn't even tell you the name of that truck. Stop. It was not a big one. I think it was the mom and pop. No, no, it was 20. It was Oh, it was named after the exit. Yeah. Yes, it was. I think it was the 20 rest there. Rest stop or truck stop the, yeah. Anyway, exit. Exit 20 truck stop or something like that. Yeah, something. Yeah. All I know is when I had to stop there, I was like, you gotta be joking me.

This is a truck stop. Yeah. Had good food in the restaurant. There was a restaurant there. Yeah. The added one. That's what I said. Oh wow. It's decent. Decent. You could tell I had that. I didn't say it was great. I said it was decent. You could tell I have not been there in ages. It's kinda like that one down in the Port of Albany that should like woo.

That should have closed down, you know, shortly after. I think that was a ta. I think you're right. Anyway, any who, so that's just about hits all of 'em. But from what it takes to make a good truck stop to some of the big name truck stops. But we didn't go into detail about who bought out whom. Totally. We named some of them, but yeah, like I said, I think, I think TA owns Petro or vice versa, and, and I think Pilot owns Flying.

J, I thought. But, or maybe it's flying J Pilot, I don't know, but I know they're, they're together. I think it's flying J Pilot. Yeah. Now that you say it, that I think it's flying Jay Pilot. Yeah. But that whole thing, conversation could like go on for 10 hours. Yeah. That, that, that's a whole nother, you know, um, some of the stuff we've left out that, especially if you're new, I believe that maybe that when you're fueling up with a company card, for instance, you do not always have the option of picking where you've stopped to fuel.

Right. Because some companies like, like I said, my company at the time used TA and that's TA truck stops. That's it. That's the only place they could stop at. Yep. Um, that's the only one that accepted our fuel card. Yeah. And if you fuel nowadays there are more major brand fuel cards out there that companies have.

Yeah. So you could just about go anywhere. But see, and I was one of the lucky ones, my fuel card was a MasterCard. Whoa. So I could fuel pretty much anywhere. Um, but if you have one of the company ones like he did, you couldn't go anywhere else. And basically if you fueled there, you showered there. And if you showered there, you, you pretty much ate there because by then you were tired and out of hours.

Yep. That was pretty much it. That was my end, end the night. Yeah. And once you've done all that, you're so tired. You're just like, I do not wanna move my truck again. I'm done. So you kind of get used to a chain. Yep. And whether it's one of them big purdy chains, you know, that you love or you think you will, or smaller mom and pop chain.

Right. That has all the hospitality in the world, you know, Hey, I like, like I said, I used to fuel, get cleaned up, eat dinner and, and park for the night. Yeah. And I knew, um, a couple drivers that would fuel up, clean up and then go park at rest stops. You know, and well, it also depend on if I, you know, if I still had time to drive mm-hmm.

After I fueled up, got cleaned up. Yeah. And, and, and got some food in my belly. If I still had the energy and the time, I would press on. Okay. Otherwise, I would just shut it down. Did you use electric logbooks back then, or paper? No. Okay. So I'm trying to word this, um, Correctly. I only used paper log books.

Mm-hmm. The world that I came from, um, nobody had only one logbook. Uhhuh. So you never ran out of time. Oh, you know what I mean, to be No, I'm just saying, I'm trying to say this legal for these newbies out here. Legal. The legal, legal. Well, they, they can't cheat, they can't cheat the system no more. I'm trying to, I'm trying to explain this.

So there, there was ways that we could cheat the system. Nobody ran outta time back then. Mm-hmm. Because if you knew what you were doing, you could run and say, Four log books even, you know, not that I know anybody personally. After, after the second one, if you ran a third one, it started getting a little confusing.

No, not if you're good with numbers. It was easy. But anyway. Anyways, let me finish anyways. So some of the drivers that ran multiple logbook, ding story time, okay. Ding story times some of the drivers that ran multiple, multiple logbooks. Won't, won't mention any names, Janet. This I didn't do though. Um, this part of it I didn't do.

Okay. They would. Fuel, shower, you know, clean up sometimes eat there. Sometimes they'd eat later in their truck and then they would go park at a rest stop. Or on a, um, on ramp. Off ramp, something like that. 'cause some states it's still legal, right? Or it was then anyway. Yeah. That way they didn't have to deal with people's and they'd, you know, cook in their truck or.

You know, I already had, had something made that they just was reheating or cold cut sandwich or something they bought at the restaurant there and, and just ate there. You know, boom, boom. Got it. Got it to go. Yeah. And that way they were away from all the people, away from all the traffic that comes out of a rest, out of a truck stop in the morning, uhhuh and a little bit closer to the destination.

Especially if they were like, say one of those big areas like Chicago or something where you've got so much going on, you can get close busy busy. Yeah. Like I could have parked at the rail yards overnight if I wanted to. Right. You know, but I chose to stay at the truck stop, you know, an hour away. Yeah. You know, so it's not always the safest thing to do if you drive solo.

True. Most of the people that did this type of thing, and this is not recommended or endorsed by 18 Wheel Talk podcast show, carried a shotgun, usually a pistol grip. Mm-hmm. I don't know anybody that owns or carries these things. Nope. Um, So we'll just leave it at that and wherever you choose to pull your brakes tonight.

Drivers be safe. Yes, and while you're on the road, keep your rubber side down and your shiny side up. So say goodbye Patrick. I wasn't ready. Oh, okay. I'm sorry I wasn't ready. I'm sorry. Oh my God. Don't forget to sign up for the fan club. I'm so sorry. Please sign it. Go to, go to the number one, the number eight wheel talk.com/fanclub.

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We only, we're only affiliated with things that we talk about here on the podcast show and actually use and, and abuse ourselves. That's a good way to put it. Use and abuse. Yep. So, But anyways, we thank you for joining us today and uh, keep your rubber side down and your shiny side up. I'm sorry. We'll catch you on the flip side.

Bye. Okay Bye.