T A Wapakoneta OH

Sunday afternoon. Just need a little snack. Order a bowl of chili with onions and cheese, large Pepsi.
Chili was very good, and the server -Gidget was her name- was the best. Pleasant and efficient.
But that is not the real reason for this post.
In a little over a month I will have been an owner operator for 40 years. This is how it was the first time I was here.
I had just completed 2 weeks of training at northAmerican Vanlines in Fort Wayne IN. One of their 14 day wonders, arrive with the $2500 down payment for a tractor (1974 White Road Commander, 290 Cummins, 10 speed, spring ride single axle.) And drive away from HQ with a used truck and a ton of dreams. A little short on experience would be an understatement.
It was Friday Jan 30 1976. It was cold that afternoon(maybe 20 deg) flurries and getting dark. Me and 30 other recent "graduates" were climbing into their own tractors for the 1st time and being turned loose on an unsuspecting motoring public. I knew how to start and shift it ok, but I was in strange territory (Fort Wayne) No gps, go find this drop lot in Fort Wayne, pu trl 122453 (40 ' long) hook up and head for Lima OH. Drop it and pick up a trailer loaded with lawnmowers going to Indianapolis for Monday.. The US 30 "bypass" around Fort Wayne is anything but, traffic lights, impatient drivers headed home on a Friday. Bobtailing in the snow with maybe 700 miles of experience total under my skinny belt, none of it bobtailing. Get to a snow covered drop lot, extract a trailer that had been there for months. northAmerican had a logo with an arrow on the side. Good thing, it told me what end of the trailer to hook up to.
Get on the highway, now snowing a little harder, wind is causing it to drift a little. It is now about 9pm, I have been driving for what seems like an eternity. In reality it is about 66 miles. The Union 76 truckstop guide we have been given lists Wapakoneta as the closest to my target. I proudly pull up to the pumps. The kid comes out thumbs up, signaling do I want to fill it. I climb down and tell him to put in 21 gallons of fuel. In the huge amount of numbers and info I have been fed in training in the past 14 days I am mistakenly under the impression I MUST purchase exactly the amount of fuel burned in each state on each trip. The kid just shakes his head but complies. After cashing my advance check for $75 and paying $11 for the fuel I park and sleep in my own 34" flat top sleeper with the engine off in 10 deg weather for the first time. This Cummins has a compression release, I have been assured it will start when this cold with a little ether. It does but later on I would find out the limits to such confidence. My new sleeping bag from K-Mart doesn't fail me. I didn't even have to go inside to pee until the next morning.