Truck Drivers Know the Best Places to Eat
What is it about the dining public that they will buy cookbooks, watch TV cooking shows hosted by Cordon Bleu chefs, pay outrageous prices to be mistreated at hoity-toity restaurants, and then say, “Truck drivers always know the best places to eat”?
Professional interstate truck drivers have demanding and lonely jobs. Often they must pay expenses out of their own pockets, so the profit margin is tight. Add in the dangers of the road and the size of the average rig, and drivers are forced to select roadside dining that is:
REALITY CHECK
Dead Man’;s Hand
“Aces and eights” in poker are called a “dead man’;s hand” because James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok was holding a pair of each when he was shot to death by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876. Known to taunt challengers into gunfights so that he could kill them fair and square, Hickok had settled into Deadwood Gulch in the Dakota Territory, gotten married, and planned to search for gold. He was enjoying a card game in the Number 10 Saloon when McCall, who held Hickok responsible for his brother’;s death, put a bullet in the back of his head.
• Cheap
• Safe (to park and catnap)
• Convenient (and easy to exit and re-enter the highway)
And there’;s something else you hear around truck stops: Drivers park, not necessarily where the food is hot, but where the waitresses are. It gets lonely on the road.
