tell us about your last Truck stop restaurant experience

DdBob

DdBob

Dogue in teh desert
When, where, what?

Mine back around the end of September...TA (TravelCenters of America) in Wilcox, AZ...I started off with the all you can eat soup and salad bar. They have a good selection and it's pretty much a value. Two bowls of soup and a salad for me./ Then I had a burger and a pepsi.
There was a lone trucker type browsing his smart phone and relaxing /casually eating at his booth, there was an old couple with another old couple having a get together. The best people though was a guy and his woman and their teenage son and daughter. I felt bad for them cuz they came in and it took them a while to get menus and then even longer for food. Finally the man stood up and asked the waitress 'are we ever gonna get served" and she says "i'm sorry, it'll be right out" and he's all "OH REALLY IS THAT SO and and kinda threw his arms up in disgust liek "come at me bro" all aggro and everything. I think his woman kinda forced him intyo the situation from what i could tell...it was a not so great scene.

the End.
 
I love truck stop food. Good truck stop food. Bacon and biscuits and gravy and chicken fried steak. They tend to cook with more salt and oil at most places like that, which would explain my heart surgery.
 
I went to a truck stop across the street from an Indian casino in rural Arizona a few years ago. It was just a big convenience store with showers. Basically the offspring of a Wawa and a gay bathhouse.
 
Back in July. Middle of Nowhere Mississipi just off the Natchez Trace. Big juicy cheeseburger and home fries. It was pretty good. Me and the cashier/cook/waitress were the only 2 people in the place. In September I made a round trip from Alabama to Colorado on the Harley and somehow managed to avoid eating at any truck stops, not really on purpose it just worked out that way. Ate at local meat & threes, bbq, or Mexican places.
 
Last edited:
From February through July 2019, I had a lot of them because I was driving a tractor trailer. I carried a lot of my own food to avoid truck stop food. I even had a coffee pot in my truck so I didn't even have to buy coffee from them. If I was out on the road I would usually eat a Sunday meal and just chill in a booth. TA, Love's, Pilot are nation wide and the company I drove for would only buy fuel from those 3 places. When my 10 hour clock got short though I would have to find a place to park and I could end up anywhere.

One time I stopped at a place called the Woodshed http://bigcabintravelplaza.com/map.html . First time there, they had a great selection of food and a nice store and lounge area. Had a big dirt parking lot, which is nice, with 70 feet of vehicle, made it really easy to park after driving for 10 hours. It was one of my weekly meal days so I went in chilled and had a great meal. When I walked back out to my truck I had to make way though 15 or 20 Bandido bikers and about 5 or 6 old ladies who were dressed like hookers do on TV. It was weird. I'm old, so no one said anything to me and I just walked on to my truck. I was also a gang specialist before I retired from the state, so I watched through my windshield and was paranoid most of the night because Bandidos were constantly coming and going all night. I didn't think I would get hijacked because who wants 60,000 pounds of Bush's Baked Beans.
 
Another time I took a load of goods from Williamsburg, Va. Walmart distribution center, that receives goods from overseas, to a distribution center for Walmart in Tobyhanna Pa. After unloading I was really short on driving hours so I had to find a safe and legal place to park quick. Found a small Liberty Express TS near by and there was one spot to park and I was able to get in it. I thought great, fantastic, safe for the night. It was called a truckstop on my app but it's really like a mini-mart with tight parking for 10 tractor trailers and about 5 more bobtails. 15 spots with overnight parking. Small convenience store with a Burger King connected with gas and one or two diesel pumps. This place had one public men's room and ladies room. I didn't eat there but, if you were standing first in line to order and turned your head to the right you were almost looking directly in the men's room. I went to use the men's room and I shit you not there is no way it had been cleaned in a week. Freaking stink was clearly smelled from the BK order area. If you find this place on the net you will see my write up. I complained to the on duty manager first. The next day before I left I went in to use the bathroom and the nasty ass place had not been touched. When I say not touched, I mean not touched. Same piss pools on the floor only bigger. Same shit stains on the toilet with the same turds stopping up one toilet that were there the day before. I not only wrote it up I searched for and found the number to the local health department and called them. I sent emails up the their chain of command raising so much hell that some headquarters dude called me the next day and offered me free food from the Burger King and store. Told him no way I would ever eat anything from there. Ever.
 
DinoMikeSr said:
From February through July 2019, I had a lot of them because I was driving a tractor trailer. I carried a lot of my own food to avoid truck stop food. I even had a coffee pot in my truck so I didn't even have to buy coffee from them. If I was out on the road I would usually eat a Sunday meal and just chill in a booth. TA, Love's, Pilot are nation wide and the company I drove for would only buy fuel from those 3 places. When my 10 hour clock got short though I would have to find a place to park and I could end up anywhere.

One time I stopped at a place called the Woodshed http://bigcabintravelplaza.com/map.html . First time there, they had a great selection of food and a nice store and lounge area. Had a big dirt parking lot, which is nice, with 70 feet of vehicle, made it really easy to park after driving for 10 hours. It was one of my weekly meal days so I went in chilled and had a great meal. When I walked back out to my truck I had to make way though 15 or 20 Bandido bikers and about 5 or 6 old ladies who were dressed like hookers do on TV. It was weird. I'm old, so no one said anything to me and I just walked on to my truck. I was also a gang specialist before I retired from the state, so I watched through my windshield and was paranoid most of the night because Bandidos were constantly coming and going all night. I didn't think I would get hijacked because who wants 60,000 pounds of Bush's Baked Beans.
Click to expand...

It's kinda sad how all the truck stops nowdays have become corporate...TA, Love's, Pilot, etc...

I remember back in the 70's seems it was primarily Union 76 as the only corporate but i could be wrong. I also spent a couple week in the mid 80's riding shotgun with an Uncle who was a truck driver and went cross country. Even back then it was still independants primarily although i do remember stoppoing at a humongous TA somewhere in Northern texas i think it was.

Here in Tucson we still have the legendary Triple T which I remember stopping at in the 70's before we lived here and even in the early 1980's we would sometimes drive out there for a friday night dinner...found these old photo's of when it was opened in 1966
https://tucson.com/news/blogs/photo...n_55860fbe-510f-11e5-a5e5-17d1c1897f40.html#1

also there was Shady grove truckstops in Road Forks , NM ( just inside the NM side of the AZ/NM border. it used to be a bustling place and we would always stop there going between Silver City and Tucson and or Ajo, AZ going to IL. The time that really stand out to me was when we moved from Silver City to Tucson and we stopped there to eat...i was probably 7 or 8 and we had our first dog in the Suburban...a dog we got with our house in NM. We had to leave him in the truck of course and i was bummed...I finished up my open faced hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatos and gravy which was my go to as fast as i could so that i could go out to the truck and sit with him9we had a table by the window and the truck was parked right there...sadly the Shady grove is dead now. i stopped and took this pic just last week

RIP Independant Truck stops of America :sad:

IMG_0260.jpeg
 
I want to add that the two experiences I posted above were the weirdest and worst experiences I had at truckstop. While I drove during that time I had to stop at truckstops everyday and there are hundreds of fantastic places out there. Many that great you when you enter the door and have bathrooms and showers you could probably eat off of. Many times I walked in a truckstop from a long hard hot sweaty dirty day and the people were so kind. You check into your shower room and perfect. Find your way to the restaurant and the waitress is kind as can be.

No, I never hired a lot lizard. Yes I saw a few, but they're not out there like you think.
 
Road with my dad in the late 60's and 70's when he drove and it is sad that the independent places are loosing out. There are still some nice ones out there. But they're being bought up by the corporate giants. But then again, when you're stuck on the side of the road the big boys come through. I blew a tire once, blew and air line under the cab once, and was sent to get a trailer with damaged landing gear once (landing gear had to be cut off) Love's and TA were the crews that were sent to help me and withing 30 minutes of getting to me I was going down the road. When time is money it's hard for mom and pop to stock and have ready what's needed.

Wow, guess my dad has been gone 20 years now. If he could have seen the truck I drove for a company he would have been amazed. Quiet inside to where you could have a normal conversation. 500 hp. Air ride on the axles and the cab. Heat that was heat and AC that was real AC. 3500 watts of house type power in the cab, I used a fridge and coffee pot, laptop, Company GPS on the truck alone and ran my own truck only GPS system.

The last trucks my dad drove still had metal dashes, not air ride, with poor ac and heat. Good memories of being with my dad.

DdBob said:
It's kinda sad how all the truck stops nowdays have become corporate...TA, Love's, Pilot, etc...

I remember back in the 70's seems it was primarily Union 76 as the only corporate but i could be wrong. I also spent a couple week in the mid 80's riding shotgun with an Uncle who was a truck driver and went cross country. Even back then it was still independants primarily although i do remember stoppoing at a humongous TA somewhere in Northern texas i think it was.

Here in Tucson we still have the legendary Triple T which I remember stopping at in the 70's before we lived here and even in the early 1980's we would sometimes drive out there for a friday night dinner...found these old photo's of when it was opened in 1966
https://tucson.com/news/blogs/photo...n_55860fbe-510f-11e5-a5e5-17d1c1897f40.html#1

also there was Shady grove truckstops in Road Forks , NM ( just inside the NM side of the AZ/NM border. it used to be a bustling place and we would always stop there going between Silver City and Tucson and or Ajo, AZ going to IL. The time that really stand out to me was when we moved from Silver City to Tucson and we stopped there to eat...i was probably 7 or 8 and we had our first dog in the Suburban...a dog we got with our house in NM. We had to leave him in the truck of course and i was bummed...I finished up my open faced hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatos and gravy which was my go to as fast as i could so that i could go out to the truck and sit with him9we had a table by the window and the truck was parked right there...sadly the Shady grove is dead now. i stopped and took this pic just last week

RIP Independant Truck stops of America :sad:

View attachment 52678
Click to expand...
 
Ten or maybe twelve years ago, I visited a customer and the closest place for lunch was the truck stop.
It was good food. Nothing fancy. I think I had the banquet burger.
 
Last truck stop was 1998. After a few days hiking in the Guadalupe mountains, I used the rent-a-shower at a truck stop in Van Horn, TX.

If you’ve read “No Country For Old Men,” Van Horn is the town with the sign for diesel fried chicken.
 
Years ago, many, many years ago. I was on I45 going to Dallas and it was cold as a witches tit in a brass bra. And, wouldn't you know it, the heater gives out. I was warm for a while but then it started to get unbearable and I was shivering big time. I thought I could power on thru to Dallas but I gave up and stopped at some non-descript place and ordered up some coffee. I was seriously cold and maybe it was the hypothermia but I put some Haggard on those little juke boxes that were on each table. Well I thought it would be a discreet volume, you know, like just for my table but no. Truck Driving Man come BLARING out of the sound system of the whole place. Loud as a Peavey SP1 with midrange to spare. I literally fell out of the booth laughing and stumbled out of the place and continued on. True story.
 
tiger roach said:
Last truck stop was 1998. After a few days hiking in the Guadalupe mountains, I used the rent-a-shower at a truck stop in Van Horn, TX.

If you’ve read “No Country For Old Men,” Van Horn is the town with the sign for diesel fried chicken.
Click to expand...

That's some good hiking out there.
 
Last summer-ish. Denny’s attached to a truck stop in nowheresville Illinois nursing a multiday, 4D-chess playing motherfucker of
a hangover. Had some chicken noodle soup and a Coke and some saltines.

Didn’t die. Brunch was a success.
 
Honkridge said:
Years ago, many, many years ago. I was on I45 going to Dallas and it was cold as a witches tit in a brass bra. And, wouldn't you know it, the heater gives out. I was warm for a while but then it started to get unbearable and I was shivering big time. I thought I could power on thru to Dallas but I gave up and stopped at some non-descript place and ordered up some coffee. I was seriously cold and maybe it was the hypothermia but I put some Haggard on those little juke boxes that were on each table. Well I thought it would be a discreet volume, you know, like just for my table but no. Truck Driving Man come BLARING out of the sound system of the whole place. Loud as a Peavey SP1 with midrange to spare. I literally fell out of the booth laughing and stumbled out of the place and continued on. True story.
Click to expand...
whern I took that pic above of Shady Grove it was like two days after Christmas and we had some 'weather" going through the southwest...frigging snowed all the way from lordsberg , NM to almost Benson, AZ. I stopped at the TA in Wilcox for gas and had never seen it so busy...cars backed up at the pumps like it was the 70's gas crunch and parking lot full at restaurant. I parked way out by the truckers and shared some beef jerky with Sonny. I understood then and there why the Truck stop is like an oasis for the traveller...a reprieve from the rigors of the road...it's like Linuses security blanket on an episode of the peanuts.....and if you go in to the restaurant there is a friendly waitress to call you "hon"and never rush you

Here's a groovy time capsule of the glory years of Truckin' I found on "Overdrive" magazine...it's a video from the Internetz archive https://archive.org/embed/cbpf_000037
https://www.overdriveonline.com/overlooked-video-gem-reveals-a-bygone-trucking-era/
 
jp_nyc said:
I went to a truck stop across the street from an Indian casino in rural Arizona a few years ago. It was just a big convenience store with showers. Basically the offspring of a Wawa and a gay bathhouse.
Click to expand...

Ten or 15 years ago, we did the mount Rushmore-Yellowstone thing. We live in Illinois, started on I80. In Iowa, we came upon https://iowa80truckstop.com/ "the world's largest truck stop". How can we not stop? It's like the world's largest ball of twine or something. Plus it was time for lunch.

Ordered lunch. While we waited, and as we ate, over the speakers, we kept hearing "187 your shower is ready" "188 your shower is ready" Couldn't help but imagine a giant room full of naked men, each holding a little ticket.
 
I think the last time I stopped at one was coming home from a concert in Chicago.

At that time of night between Chicago & Michigan, your only options to get food are 24/7 McDonald's or a truck stop. I believe I stopped at the Flying J near where I-94 and the Indiana Toll Road, I-80/90 come together. Got some sort of breakfast, if I remember rightly. Steak n Eggs maybe :shrug: Just your average diner breakfast, nothing to write home about.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top