March 19, 2008
WORLD'S LARGEST TRUCK STOP
Sorry for the caps above, but as you can see, the Iowa 80 truck stop seems to warrant an increased measure of enthusiasm:
So sometime last night, I think 11 or so, I pulled off I-80 about 10 miles east of Davenport, IA... We wanted to cross the Mississippi River in the light of day.
I'm not sure how to effectively describe this to anyone who hasn't been there... It's after dark and we've been in a car for more than 11 hours and have covered about 600 miles with two moody cats... Needless to say, we're tired. So, I pull off 80, and am instantly confronted by more big rigs than I've seen in one place in my life. It's like that place in Antarctica where all the Emperor Penguins go to hatch their eggs, there are millions of them. Except that instead of penguins there are trucks. And they're there to sleep or get fuel instead of have little penguins. And it's in Iowa. And there are, like, hundreds of thousands of them. Ok hundreds... There were so many, I found it distracting. Did you ever see that Stephen King movie where all of the Semis get possessed and try to kill people? There's this scene at a truck stop where possessed driverless rucks have encircled our heroes and are driving menacingly around the truck stop like an evil inside-out circled wagon train designed to keep prey in, rather than Indians out. It was like that. Kinda.
At any rate, it was distracting and I had a hard time navigating to the Comfort Inn which didn't accept pets. So we had to truck it on over across the overpass to the Day's Inn, which did accept pets (lord only knows what else they accepted, but I'm pretty sure it includes roaches, smoking, and dirt). So we pull into the Day's Inn parking lot, under the awning, and Pat hops inside to get a room. He comes out a few minutes later and, since I was on the phone, we switch places and he proceeds to pull around to the back of the hotel to park the car and trailer. We're driving back into the parking lot to perform what would amount to a right handed U-turn around the back of Day's Inn to park in the other lot. At about this moment, Patrick notices that, in fact, the parking log does not wrap around the Days Inn, but stops rather abruptly in a field.
Five minutes later, we've realized that we can not turn the car and trailer around, so I'm trying to guide Patrick as he backs it out. This would probably have been easier had I not been cold, tired, and laughing maniacally at Pat's expression as the trailer weaved to the opposite of whatever direction he wanted, forcing him to move forward again and correct the path. I thought it was great entertainment. I think Patrick may not share my opinion. When we finally got inside, we sat down to a feast of a 6 inch Italian sub and the largest cans of beer I've ever seen:
For reference, I have a 15.4 inch widescreen laptop monitor.