Wednesday, February 10, 2016

24 Hours at a Truckstop in Arkansas

(Infographic: Shaye Anderson)

 I enjoyed this informative article about the trucking lifestyle and the challenging way of life that goes with it. 



Link to Article: http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/twenty-four-hours-at-a-truck-stop
by Will Stephenson

Excerpt from the article:

5:00 A.M.

“Waking up is the hardest thing,” Joe says, finishing a cigarette in the back parking lot of a truck stop in Caddo Valley, Arkansas. Joe is in his mid-40s, and has driven a truck for 14 years. He’s in the middle of a run from Dallas, where he lives, to Nashville, Tennessee, though his range includes the entire continental United States. He’s almost always in the middle of going somewhere.
His freight might consist of anything, but lately has mostly been water. Forty-five thousand pounds of water. A little while ago, Joe had woken up and taken advantage of his complimentary shower—the truck stop offers showers for every 50 gallons of diesel pumped—when he realized he’d locked his keys in the cab of his truck. That’s why he’s wearing gym shorts and flip flops, his hair tousled and wet, smoking outside in the cold while he waits for dispatch to send help. “Getting up in the morning, starting your day,” he says, “it sucks.”
I’m only here to observe. Truck stops are fascinating, composite places, at once dense and secluded. They’re one-stop shops that are also offices, restaurants, public facilities, and homes. I’m here, maybe unwisely, to see what happens to one of them over the course of 24 hours. The idea is to get a sense of the whole equation, of what these spaces mean to people, how they are used, and how they change over time.

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