Truck Stop 500!

This is not a list of the best 500 truck stops, it is in the spirit of NASCAR that I gave the title this twist. Being a dog owner, I often park on the side or the back of parking lots. My little Coffette is fussy and takes care of her business on grassy patches instead of blacktop.

Walking around my furry friend, I hear, before I see, a truck here and there passing gears in high revolution and gears are passed, 1^st,2^nd,3^rd,4^th,5^th, the rpm very high and if I judge by my truck, it’s in the 22 to 25 mph that truck is rolling in the aisles of the lot. Frustration from the last call to dispatch, a message on the satellite, waking up late, or any other reason to put the hammer down.

We can almost hear: ”Gentlemen, start you engines!” but, the engine was already idling for long hours and the excess of oil in the cylinders is burning blue in the stack. It happened that another truck stop stressed driver comes along the end of a row and in the path of the first one that is rolling out. We all heard of fender benders, I was even a victim of one in early December (see pictures at the end). How many times in an angled parking lot, we can barely see on the right side what is coming up and all of a sudden, the stressed driver pulls up.

In the debate on speed limiters, should we ask to also put a device as found in IRL and Formula 1 in the pits that limits the speed and turns off the engine brake. I was forgetting these stressed drivers often don’t turn it off. I like them with straight pipes too…

I know, I am a little bit sarcastic but, please, have some considerations for the other ones. Going out of the parking lot a little bit slower may only take a few seconds more in you day of work and may avoid you a fender bender that will hold you up for way longer

Jean Catudal