Stopping for Entertainment

didn't someone recently try to make one of those "fun places" near that TA into a drive thru recently?

 

News to me, I was there about,,,hmm, well sometime between Christmas and Thanksgiving. Ho Ho Ho.

1.) Well since my outfit does a lot of fixtures. I'd say many of my deliveries ARE at malls and shopping centers.

2.) You only look like a moron if you hit curbs, bushes and parked cars and can't parallel park the rig in a way that looks neat.
(keep it in the lines facing the exit, not bent around a pole with one wheel on the median)

3.) (I do a lot of short haul regional work, and my load/unload times can be in the 4-6 hour range, so this scenario might be unique.) I've got to run 400-500 miles to deliver. 7-8 hours of drive time, plus 3-4 hours of unload. I now have about 2 hours left on the 14 hour clock so I can't go home, but due to good planing the truck stop is 15 minutes away. (Or I can spend the night on site). I can maybe get some cheaper food with more options at the mall food court than what's available at the TS. Then I get a call from my dispatcher, I've got a backhaul but it won't be ready for 14 hours, and it's only 2 hours away. So not only do I have the 10 hour break, but I've got 2 extra hours to kill.

Not everybody runs 11's all week long with 15 minute D/H's. Much as I like running in the dark, I just can't get my company to chain loads together like they used to at *major carrier*. So yeah, I often have an opportunity to go out to dinner or catch a movie when I'm out. But I'm more often home every night and probably only in my rig 6-10 nights a month.

 

I'll have to double check when I get home but I think there's space to park a truck behind the Tinseltown USA in El Paso on the east side. The road directly behind is a truck route. Lot of industrial park areas around. You'd pretty much blend in.