Sleeping with the Big Boys!

For the first time in my fulltiming journey, I’m spending the night at a truck stop!  And definitely not by choice!  I know lots of people do it to save a few bucks, but I’m here to tell you that this is culture shock for me.  I have always felt most comfortable in a campground when I’m traveling down the road.  I’ve also always felt like a behemoth going down the road, but compared to my neighbors I’m a pipsqueak.

So, here’s how I got here at the Love’s Truck Stop in Ontario, Oregon.  Emma and I left Malheur NWR right on schedule at 9:00 this morning with a destination of a campground fairly close to the repair facility in Nampa, Idaho.  As I plugged ‘Jack in the Box’ in, he wanted me to go 13 miles down an incredibly dusty gravel road.  I had decided to ignore him since I didn’t want every nook and cranny of the rig and toad to be clogged with very fine road dust.  My plan was to add a few miles to the journey, but to remain on paved roads.  As I turned right when he wanted me to turn left, he went into recalculating overdrive and told me trucks were prohibited on the route I was taking!  Not so, mate.  I was familiar with the beginning of my route so I tried to ignore him, but eventually I had to shut the GPS off as he continually told me to turn places where there was no road.  :)  Once I got to Burns, I turned him on again, and he was much more reasonable.  I headed East on US 20 towards Idaho, and that’s when the fun (?) began.

I had about 120 miles on US 20 through some of the most uninhabited terrain that I have encountered.  It was reminiscent of West Texas on I-10, except there were no road kills to count or windmills.  :)  Instead, there were a few mountains (around 4500’) to contend with.  As I was rolling along, I noticed that the engine heat gauge kept going up!  Ugh!  I had checked the coolant level before I left and topped it off.  Funny thing was, when I had to climb the mountain grades, the temp would drop back down to normal.  I was getting pretty nervous about this since I was sure I wouldn’t have any cell reception to call for help.  The hot engine alarm went off twice as I was driving, and as soon as I could, I pulled over to cool off the motor.  US 20 is a two lane road with no shoulder to speak of, and a definite drop off on the side of the road.  I tried eating lunch, but things didn’t settle too well since I was worried about the overheating. I checked the coolant level, and it was good.  Eventually, I limped into the Love’s Truck Stop in Ontario just in the nick of time.  Earlier, if I slowed way down, the temp would decrease, but it had gotten to the point where it wasn’t doing that any longer.  :(

I parked back in the trucker’s lot and went to see if there were any repair services here.  There weren’t.  So, I called my Emergency Road Service for help.  Since it was Sunday, they suggested that I spend the night at Love’s, and will arrange for a tow job in the morning to a facility that can service my Workhorse. 

I then went in to verify that it would be okay for me to spend the night in the parking lot, and they said yes.  I told them where I was parked, and that I had heard that trucker’s don’t always like motorhomes in their area.  An obvious truck driver was behind me in line, and he said “Tough with them!  Just don’t go dancing around naked in the parking lot!”   I told him I’d try not to do that, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!  :)

So that’s how I ended up boon docking tonight in a truck stop!  It’s something I hoped never to do, but it sure beats being broken down out in the middle of nowhere with no cell reception.  I’m following those parking lot boon docking courtesy rules and haven’t deployed my (broken) levelers or put out my slides.  I did, however, kick in the generator as the temps inside the rig were in the 90’s this afternoon.  You can hardly hear the generator over all the noise the big truck rigs make.  :)  Maybe one of you can explain to me why they don’t turn off their engines.  I’m not complaining, just curious.  The rig on my left also has something that turns on every couple of minutes that sounds like a hot air balloon blasting away.  I wonder what that is? 

Tonight should be interesting when I literally climb into bed.  I sure hope I don’t have to get up during the night or I’m liable to break my nose crashing into the wardrobe slide.  If things had been different today, I would have regaled you with pictures of the onion harvest in Eastern Oregon.  I bet I saw millions of onions today.  I never knew they were grown here.
It’s a shock to move from the quietude of a wildlife refuge to the noisy goings on at a truck stop.  I hope tomorrow isn’t so adventurous, but I’m not holding my breath.  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy