Truck stop.
Now, we've all been to truck stops before, truck drivers or not. To eat, or just to stop for a bite to eat and get fuel. My story here is about real 'trucker' truck stops.
The place was known as the "Outlaw", and it lived up to its name. Barely bigger than four phone booths glued together. Maximum seating was about (12). Every 'outlaw' trucker on planet Earth stopped there. It was situated along Interstate 80 in SW Wyoming (my home town). The "Outlaw" was a rough place; it only opened up at midnight and stayed open until 7am. All carryover fights from the bar were sent to the parking lot to settle the score outside. This was a usual occurrence.
Inside, the Outlaw served breakfast (generally); anythng you wanted. But they also had one other specialty...Egg Foo Yong and Chicken Chow Mein (the resident cook was Chinese). The egg foo yong was to die for...it was beyond excellent. AND, it was worth even staying up late to go get EFY from the Outlaw even if you weren't hungry! It was THAT good!.
Anyway, at the time, I was working as a truck driver...oilfield truck driver. We carried stuff out into the oilfields whenever the companies needed it. Our days usually started at 2am and we went to the Outlaw for "breakfast" (or dinner, whatever). We would see all these fights start with the roughnecks looking to one up each other, but most of us were driving for Halliburton or Texaco, so we stayed out of this.
Our trips would take us 100 miles out into the high Wyoming desert, out east of Rock Springs, Wyoming. The area was remote (understatement of the week). You ate at the cafe, or you didn't eat for maybe two days. We always ate at the Outlaw, before driving out of town.
My most memorable thing was "why" we went there so early in the mornings. Simply put, we wanted to park our trucks next to other running trucks, to warm them up. It was -35F below zero on many of those days, and even though we had tank heaters, those old diesels were just begging to stall at a moment's notice. If they ever did, you'd spend two entire days trying to get one started again!~!
I'll never forget the Egg Foo Yong at the Outlaw! Must have been loaded with 5-6 eggs, just to mix in with all the veggies and chicken in those omelet-pancake like things! Saved my 'bacon' more than once! That ol' Chinese chef knew us, and he did us right every time!
Now, we've all been to truck stops before, truck drivers or not. To eat, or just to stop for a bite to eat and get fuel. My story here is about real 'trucker' truck stops.
The place was known as the "Outlaw", and it lived up to its name. Barely bigger than four phone booths glued together. Maximum seating was about (12). Every 'outlaw' trucker on planet Earth stopped there. It was situated along Interstate 80 in SW Wyoming (my home town). The "Outlaw" was a rough place; it only opened up at midnight and stayed open until 7am. All carryover fights from the bar were sent to the parking lot to settle the score outside. This was a usual occurrence.
Inside, the Outlaw served breakfast (generally); anythng you wanted. But they also had one other specialty...Egg Foo Yong and Chicken Chow Mein (the resident cook was Chinese). The egg foo yong was to die for...it was beyond excellent. AND, it was worth even staying up late to go get EFY from the Outlaw even if you weren't hungry! It was THAT good!.
Anyway, at the time, I was working as a truck driver...oilfield truck driver. We carried stuff out into the oilfields whenever the companies needed it. Our days usually started at 2am and we went to the Outlaw for "breakfast" (or dinner, whatever). We would see all these fights start with the roughnecks looking to one up each other, but most of us were driving for Halliburton or Texaco, so we stayed out of this.
Our trips would take us 100 miles out into the high Wyoming desert, out east of Rock Springs, Wyoming. The area was remote (understatement of the week). You ate at the cafe, or you didn't eat for maybe two days. We always ate at the Outlaw, before driving out of town.
My most memorable thing was "why" we went there so early in the mornings. Simply put, we wanted to park our trucks next to other running trucks, to warm them up. It was -35F below zero on many of those days, and even though we had tank heaters, those old diesels were just begging to stall at a moment's notice. If they ever did, you'd spend two entire days trying to get one started again!~!
I'll never forget the Egg Foo Yong at the Outlaw! Must have been loaded with 5-6 eggs, just to mix in with all the veggies and chicken in those omelet-pancake like things! Saved my 'bacon' more than once! That ol' Chinese chef knew us, and he did us right every time!
