Trip 002, Back to the Heartland

Well, my second official trip post. We picked up a load of bricks from a couple places in Kansas. One place called Kansas Brick and Tile and the second half at their sister company, Cloud Ceramics. We're taking them back to Sioux Falls, SD! A couple of updates:

Dad felt lonely with his hurting finger, so accidentally squished mine between two of our trailer's side wenches, I'll post a picture of the situation, but my fingers don't look bad enough to be honored by a picture.

We stopped last night and ate at the truck stop Bosselmans in Salina, KS. Which leads me into my next piece of advice I've gained. I guess I don't really know if I actually gained anything, or just a reaffirmation of my already pretty good people skills.

Imagine this, we're sitting down in a booth to look through the menu, already a bit disgusted by the story on the news about an anti tolerant Gay and Lesbien group raiding the Sunday services with chants and flyers of an Evangelical Church in Michigan. OK... FIRST OF ALL! How does this help a cause? If they wanna go after some of the biggest anti homosexual groups, don't interupt their service and yell in their face; be tollerent for the sanctity of a Church Service and save the pickets and leaflets for the political arguments downtown or even outside the church... What really gets me, is when these people came into the service that morning, leaflets hidden; I'll bet 10 to 1 they were welcomed with a smile and a handshake by the people who apparently hate them so much.

So I was a little peeved at parts of society even before I had gotten my water. Then we were waited on by a nice lady who wasn't mean or gruff or aggitating in ANY WAY in my opinion. She took our orders and we waited. I played the triangle peg game on the table, completed it down to one peg once, but couldn't repeat. From behind us, a lady started to slam her coffee cup onto the table instead of politly asking for some assistance.

She filled her cup and was obviously a little angry with the lady at the tables 3 year old behavior and when she came back to our table we said, "Don't let them people get to you!" the waitress smiled and gave us a 'I didn't know what I did wrong or how to make it right' looks and dad and I nodded to reassure her she didn't do anything wronge and she wouldn't be able to do anything to make it right with them.

OK, I could live with it, but it did draw my attention to their table and here's what I saw: They were a couple in their early 50's. Dad says "Angry people always seem older." so it could have been much less, because they were pretty angry. The man had a mullet that would make Macgyver jealous, with a traditional trucker cap (even though I wonder if he wasn't a local) and the smell of smoke lingered around him. The wife sat across him in a booth type table. They wouldn't have been able to sit side by side if they wanted to, she was a large lady. I would assume she was having the buffet, which featured all the ribs and fried chicken she could handle.

OK, I could live with the cup banging and the almost movie-esque whitetrashyness about them, but what happened next blew my mind. The waitress brings out the guys dinner, supprising to me he had orded a taco salad. They brought it out in the traditional crispy edible bowl, it looked full of toppings, good green fresh lettuce and we couldn't see what inspired him to proceed to yell at the waitress for a number of things she didn't have control of and also yelled at her because his taco salad wasn't in a soft shell.... WHAT?! Who serves taco salads in a softshell bowl?! Come to think of it, I don't even know how that would work...

The waitress got the manager and they left from view. I hope they fill out a comment card and never come back, business owners don't need to deal with people like that, who are professional swindlers. Who can make a big deal out of anything in their meal to get it free and have learned the unfortunate truth, that they can get away with it. Anything to shut them up and get them out the door.

Everyone in our sectional felt terrible for the waitress and about 5 booths either appologized to her, or added a couple more extra dollars to make up for the couple who obviously left with a free belly full of ribs and chicken and didn't leave any tip. The waitress asked why she "Can't take them to the back and shoot them, just this once?" we didn't have a great answer why not to shoot them, but adviced against it anyway.

Again, reaffirmation of things I already am that I can't take for granted.

On a lighter note, here's how they transport bee's! :)