Another thing that Pilot seems to hate as much as a sit down meal is a drivers lounge.....dont be surprised one bit if the drivers lounges in Flying J's start getting turned into other things. A TV lounge is just one more thing that keeps a driver on the property and in a parking space and you know Pilot hates that.I always pretty good experiences with Flying J food. The thuing that bugs me most is I just know that pilot will trickle down into the day to day Flying J business more and more as the months go on and they will ruin yet another chain of decent truck stops. Pretty soon J's will all have subways,mcdonalds and everything in the whole damn store will be on sale for a stupid 2 for one deal that you dont want that inflates your price when you just want one of something. I have just seen very few truck stops that have been bought or taken over by pilot that have actually ended up being a lot better after everything was done. I know they just want to call it a merger but I would bet the house that this merger is not as smooth and un noticable as the TA/Petro merger. Both of those 2 chains pretty much stayed the same...I say give it a year or 2 and Flying J's wont be recognizeable for anything other than the name.

Give it about ten years or so before all the Petros become TA clones. That's what happened with 76. TA bought them out years before they finally combined. FlyingpilotJ will suffer the same fate sooner or later.

I think they will start calling it "the Flying P-Lot"...from all those "trucker bombs"!!! LOL

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Livin', Lovin',Laughin'...Makin' Friends, & Lovin' Life, Rollin' Down That Big Road!!! Redneck Women RULE!! Hell, YEAH!!!!

This is it. It doesn't matter what they put in, it can suck. But if they get local business, they'll make sure it is at least decent.

I stopped in the Flying J at Carmel Church / Ruther Glen, Virginia (I-95, Exit 104) this past Friday and yesterday (today is October 13, 2009) and noticed several things ...

The framed art work on the walls at the Country Market restuarant is being sold off and most of the art work is gone.

The food for lunch was not as good as it normally was this past trip in the buffet. A susprise to me. The ice cream machine was dispensing only a gooey mess that could not be eaten.

I asked the waitress about the coming take over. She said she was told that they will be alright and things should be made clear just before Christmas. She agreed that the idea of Denny's or IHOP coming in made sense but she herself offered the idea of a Golden Corral coming in.

That does not make sense to me because I know how Golden Corral likes to have a certain floor plan for each "store" and if the Golden Corral should be shoved into that Flying J would not make sense.

This waitress had been with that Flying J for fourteen years. I suggested that she may lose her seniority and health benefits, etc. when there is a new change of command and a new restuarant around Christmas time.

I had said eariler something to the effect that Pilot would want rapid turn over of diners at its new restuarants for getting a bigger pie of the revenue stream.

Well, I noticed one driver who was sitting there using his desk top computer at a booth for about an hour and a half with no purchasing of food or drink. He had a refillable mug (not the Flying J mug) and was drinking out of that using a straw. Two other younger drivers were watching Fox News network without purchasing anything from the restuarant

The store had NO merchandise displays on the side walk in front of the building. Normally clothing and discounted clearance items are placed out there. Inside I noticed a shrinkage of merchandise being offered with some items no longer found, like that tee shirt that says "You mess with me and you mess with the whole Trailer Park". I thought that was funny as H*** and got it when I last saw it a few months ago.

There is a big roll on-roll dumpster in the parking lot.

One part of the door frame next to the restuarant entrance is cut off with big tarps and construction signs. Three quarters of the showers are blocked off for renovation. There are new drivers bathrooms with granite counter tops and half walls. They are apparently moving on up to the East Side to a deluxe apartment in the sky ! Where they got the money for this renovations, is beyond me. Could Pilot be driving them to renovate or did the current Flying J management come up with this idea on their own?

I personally would like a waffle house over a IHOP but thats just me.....

MMMMMMMM......Waffle House hashbrowns scattered n smothered.......MMMMMMMMMMM

Well it finally happened pilot has ran flying j out of the game

We were told there are two FJ currently on line with ComData
to get the system transition bugs worked out.

Tenitive date is early 2010.(Feb/March)

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TRUCKING IS NOT REMEDIAL!

Why doe's Pilot sell handcuffs? Flying J went Bankrupt after Mr J was killed in a plane crash and the company bought a refinery in Bakersfield. Unfortunately, the supplier Shell Oil, would'nt sell crude to Flying J so in series of bad moves they went bankrupt.