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.
