Bah!

I drive a day cab truck - which means it doesn't have a sleeper berth. My company has me stay in motels when I'm on the road. I stop quite a bit at the Super 8 in Limon CO, and usually I order pizza in. Tonite, I decided to walk across the road to the TA Travel Center. Their buffet (when they don't have too much fried food) is tolerable, and a salad sounded good. I also like to read a newspaper when I'm eating alone.

So, I walk to the restaurant and look for a newspaper. They used to be in the breezeway that leads from the TA side to the Subway and the convenience store in the same building. No such luck. I walk to the register and ask. "They are around the corner outside of the convenience store." So, I walk down to the other end of the truck stop, step outside, and there are two dispensers, but for the same paper. However, the papers look old. One was dated September 30. I wasn't that anxious to buy an old newspaper. I ask at the counter in the c store if they had any newspapers. "Just the ones outside." Ok, how about a magazine? No magazines.

Back to the TA side, but in the gift shop. Did they have any magazines or newspapers? An older fellow manning the cash register informed me that there were magazines in the trucker's lounge. I told him I was planning to eat at the cafe. He informed me there were paper machines on the other end of the building. I informed him the newest paper in the display was a September 30 paper. He informed me he was sure he'd bought a paper from the dispenser after that, and it was current. I informed him he could go and look, I wasn't going to again. He then informed me there was a store about a quarter mile down the road had all that stuff, and besides that, the walk would do me good, as walking does us all good.

Well, I can't argue that I could sure use some serious walking time, but I didn't need to hear that from Doctor behind the counter at a truck stop guy.

I said "I already walked over from the motel, and up and down the truckstop looking for a newspaper."

"No, there's no motel at the store down there."

Huh. "I said I walked over FROM the motel already. You should listen."

"Well, why didn't you get a paper from over there?"

"Because I expected a full service truck stop to have a friggin' newspaper."

He started yammering on - yes, arguing with customers is a great way to generate business. I walked away: "Just forget it."

The cafe had a "Please allow us to seat you" sign up. I stood for three or four minutes, when the waitress told me "Oh, go ahead and seat yourself."

I finally got my order in for the buffet, and went to the salad bar first. Semi-ok, they had tomatoes and green peppers, but no cheese. There was some potato soup with a lot of celery. Interesting.

I eat my soup and salad, and check out the main buffet line. Mexican food tonight. Tacos - no cheese, and some sort of frito casserole. There was also a "prime rib" and a hunk of ham, but there was supposed to be a slicer manning that post. No slicer. The waitress finally notices me through the lattice, and summons a slicer. Great, I'm in business.

I get back to my table, and someone is sitting there.

"You are sitting at my table!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know!"

Well, of course he didn't know, someone had cleaned the table while I was at the buffet line. The waitress shows up, and I sit at the next table, and she gets me a new drink.

She brings me my check, but I don't get a refill. I decided I could drink all I wanted back at the motel, so I paid my check and left. I did leave a dollar tip - all she did was bring me a drink and my check, and it was a buffet, so considering all that, she did good. Normally, I'd have gone twenty percent if it was decent service. Better service gets a better tip from me.

There is a new Flying J across the interstate to the north being built as we speak. The buildings and the fuel islands are about done, so paving will be the final step. It won't take long.

The "Hook" is so gonna kick the ass of the TA.