Tues-Thurs, Dec 16-18....Restroom Greeter?

I know, once again I am falling short on my blogging! Let me play catch up...

I left you with the rice and toilet seats... we'll we arrived in Front Royal, VA on Tuesday night in the freezing pouring rain... for our drop and hook. Family Dollar accepted that we were early and it was no problem. We drove around to the "empty" lot, saw another CFI truck hooking up and realized he had the LAST empty trailer! Bummer... getting stuck somewhere with NO trailer and of course, weather warnings (ice) were out (the storm had caught up with us!). We mozy out of the lot and go back to the guard shack to see if there are empties anywhere else.

In the meantime Trapper spots another CFI truck come in and in the conversation with that driver, finds out that he thought he was suppose to drop n' hook... but he was a live unload on THURSDAY! They wouldn't unload him early! At this point, us not having a trailer took back seat and we decided to crash at the local Wal-Mart. There was one truck stop within 30 miles and all of it's 10 spaces taken!

Sittin' in the truck, kicked back, watching Lonesome Dove, listening to the rain beat on the truck was how the evening was spent. Until... the knock came on the door... it was the shopping center security guard telling us we had to leave... no overnight parking! That poor man was earning his money... again, it was pouring rain and cold! And I thought Wal-Mart was trucker friend-lier than that!

Lucky for us we were bobtail, so we bobbed over to the really crowded 10 space truck stop and "made a little spot!"

First sign of Wednesday morning came with the cheerful "beep-beep" of the qualcomm. I threw the cover over my head trying to diffuse the sound. I thought it was a wicked alarm clock, but then I came to my senses and realized that sound meant we were "out of there", so I got up and started doing my job!

The plan was for us to pick up a trailer from the shipper in Richmond, VA, get it loaded there, and carry it to Greenwood, IN. Total trip was 700+ a few, miles and we had to be in Indiana Friday morning at 5:00. We drove the majority of the way on Wednesday.

Thursday, today, found us with only 100 miles left to drive. This is good... I need to clean house and do laundry! We made our way to this really nice Pilot Travel Center and laundry was exactly what I did. Along with point women patrons in the direction of the ladies restroom!

Ask me why this Pilot, like others, has the men's restroom, laundry, showers, and game room on one side of the store and the ladies restroom is on the total opposite side????


The first lady appeared, looking really confused (and in a hurry!)... I just pointed her in the right direction. A few minutes pass, and I was sitting in the laundry area, reading the newspaper, the second confused female patron appeared... She mummered, "Do you work here?", I replied simply, "Go straight toward the counter, turn right, and the restroom is on the left." She hurried away all the while thanking me.

The laundry being finished... two hours later... the last female patron didn't have to say a word... she stopped, looked at me, and then looked around, clueless... I walked over and said, "Come this way." She didn't hesitate to follow me as I pointed her in the right direction. She must have been in a hurry too.

For some reason the words, "Hi, Welcome to Wal..Pilot... would you like a sticker?" starting to ring in my head! I will have to get some smiley face stickers soon!