Episode #23 - Great Eats!!!

For years, truckstops had some of the best food around. We talk with 6 of our drivers about their favorite places to dine. Some open, some from long ago. To check out a couple of the websites discussed, click the following links. 
https://blog.cheapism.com/best-truck-stop-restaurants/
https://www.lovefood.com/galleries/77178/the-best-truck-stop-eats-near-me-in-every-us-state
We close out the show talking about the future of trucking. Be sure to tell your friends and rate and review the podcast. 

Transcript

0:11

Welcome to driver, to driver, a Stokes trucking podcast on driver to driver. We will discuss everything related to trucking. And put a stokes trucking spin on it stokes trucking doing the right thing since 1979.

Mark 1:10

Episode 23 of the podcast.

Becki 1:13

Wow. That's pretty good.

Mark 1:14

That is pretty good. And we are going to talk about truck, stop restaurant.

Becki 1:20

your favorite

Mark 1:21

I'm a fan. I'm a fan of Many restaurants I'm especially a fan of Truckstop restaurants. We play a little clip from CW and McCall's, I think it was a top 20 hit. If I remember right, it got up to like 18 on the country, billboard charts in 1975, the old home filler up and keep on a trucking cafe. It was based on advertising jingles for old home bread.

Becki 1:51

Oh, really?

Mark 1:52

That's where that song came from. where CW McCall came from

Becki 1:57

old home bread or writing jingles,

Mark 1:59

writing jingles. He was advertising executive in Omaha. can't remember the name of the company he originally worked for cm. He exactly. He was born in Audubon, Iowa. was an advertising exec in Omaha. He worked with chip Davis, who is the founder of Mannheim steamroller. Very. famous Christmas band. I W How would you describe?

Becki 2:26

I would, they're like an orchestra sort of aren't they

Mark 2:32

but it's almost electric?

Becki 2:34

Yes. Um,

Mark 2:36

they're very famous in the Midwest. If you hear the animals in the background, I'm sorry.

Becki 2:41

No, they do. They are a new age music group. Mannheim steamroller is chip Davis. so neo-classical,

Mark 2:50

there you go. I know them from the Christmas

Becki 2:53

modern recordings of Christmas music and new age rock.

Mark 2:58

Anyway, we're getting

Becki 3:01

off slop off

Mark 3:03

So bill, bill Fryes, R I E S is actually the name of the gentleman who played the character, CW McCall. He came up with that name based off of McCall magazine was sitting on his desk when he, they hatched this idea and he put the initials in front of it because a lot of truck driver. had their initials on their shirt and he knew this character was going to be a trucker. Okay. So Wolf Creek pass. That was his first album,

Becki 3:41

which we've listened to a lot.

Mark 3:42

listened to that a lot. uh, old home filler up and keep on trucking cafe is on the album Wolf Creek pass. I would highly recommend any of his greatest hits and of course his most famous song, which hit number one. Convoy. Absolutely.

Becki 4:01

I know this one because. I bought you a bootleg copy of the movie convoy on VHS. When we were first married,

Mark 4:11

I watched it once. It was really bootleg too. Cause like every once in a while You could see a head pop up It was one of those kind.

Becki 4:19

I'm pretty sure we still have it in the closet.

Mark 4:25

Oh, it was one of my favorite movies that I had an interview with the guy from judges carwash today. And I actually. cited Convoy BJ and the bear smoking. The bandit is a big influences. Why I'm in trucking. right? That's it. wore out a VH or a cassette tape of Wolf Creek pass. CW McCall, uh, easily. One of my favorite artists, little trivia after he got his convoy

Becki 4:52

money,

Mark 4:54

his family went on vacation in Europe, Colorado. ended up buying. a house in your REA and he became the mayor of your'e from 1986 to 1992.

Becki 5:07

Oh, how interesting. It

Mark 5:09

Wow. just died. Uh, April 1st of this year.

Becki 5:12

Wow.

Mark 5:13

93 years old.

Becki 5:14

So were they still in your way when we were out there?

Mark 5:18

I didn't read that far. know He was still Um, lived a long life, had a lot of influence over a lot of truck drivers through time. So I'm big into Truckstop cafes. I like to eat. Anyway. When I first started driving, I loved stopping any place I could that had a restaurant and sitting down and try and whatever they

Becki 5:46

had.

Mark 5:48

So Val, a few months back said you ought to do a podcast on Truckstop restaurants. and I jumped at the chance to do this podcast in particular. So we've got interviews with 16. truck drivers, of who. are experienced

Becki 6:08

Susan, Susan truck drivers,

Mark 6:10

truck drivers, who knows some of the best places there are to eat some that maybe aren't open anymore. And I know a lot of us don't have time, but if you get the chance, most of the places that are mentioned during this podcast, yet,

Becki 6:22

to try and

Mark 6:23

take a take a minute and stop there and eat. So we'll hop right into our interview with Mike. Roberts. Becky, I had to, I had to plug my phone in and Press record. Okay, Mike. So what's your Truckstop food story.

Mike R 6:51

Okay. Okay. I was a Gordon fast free. This is years ago. My daughter turned 12. See, kids could only go if they were 12. Right. So my daughter turned 12 and she, and they could only go in the summer. They couldn't go in the winter. You know, when chain laws were out, you know, when you, when you had to carry tire chains, they couldn't go. Okay. So my daughter went with me one summer after she turned 12 and we, uh, went down like to LA, right. And, uh, and McDonald's had just, uh, this is a side story. Nick Giannos had just opened the big parking lanes for RVs. And so I was flipping into big Donald's and, you know, get all the food there, you know, that I didn't, you know, carry in my little cooler. Okay. We're Buttonwillow and we go to like a TA or, or somewhere like that, with that, with the restaurant. Okay. Sort of sitting at a booth and the lady comes and says, uh, to my better, what would you, like? She says, I'll take a couple of pork chops and then she decides on mashed potatoes and gravy and then green beans. Okay. And so I get something and see, uh, see our family were dairy farmers, so it was be for nothing. And so I said, what makes you think that you like pork chops? Well, grandma, you know, my ma my wife's mother, she fixes them sometimes. That's okay. Why don't you have anything you want? You know, so sort of big gums. My daughter said these pork chops taste, like they'd been sloped in Greece. I said, oh yeah. And she said these potatoes tastes like they'd been made out of those little tiny beads. So she ate her green beans. Then we walked, we had walk all the way down through, you know, the little place there, but Willow, we had a well bout like a fourth of a mile or a little bit less than an album mile all the way down. McDonald's to get her some real.

Mark 9:05

So you tried the theater truck stops.

Mike R 9:08

No she wanted, she wanted to go to a sit down restaurant and have real food.

Mark 9:14

Um, so, So you said, when I called initially that you would only eat there, if you were really kind of desperate, I guess, huh?

Mike R 9:24

no, no, no. That, that was just this one place. That was the story about my daughter. The only places that I can remember ever eating was. Uh, was it the Fe at the burns brothers? I think it you know, out on 10 joining, you know, between LA and, uh, Phoenix. But see, I can only remember eating when I was star and they had tacos one night at this buffet. That was the, that was the best food I remembered the truck stops

Mark 10:03

All right, man.

Mike R 10:04

Oh,

Mark 10:05

Um, I'm going to try and make a quick hit episode is when I'm going to try and do and talk

Mike R 10:11

Oh, have a

Mark 10:12

five Or D yeah. Four or five different of our drivers. you know, What, what do you like to eat today? and what, what's your Favorite? that maybe isn't around anymore? Val has a couple, I'm going to kind of center it around those and I do

Mike R 10:28

Yes. See, you see, see if you're back in the Midwest and the old time places had, you know, classic places, but I never did really eat at those places. You know, like that was the best place I ever ate. Well, a buffet was up Mesquite. One of those, uh, casinos, it's all torn down now, you know, it's, it's in Mesquite. If you got 50 gallon fuel going north, uh, you could eat a buffet there. That was pretty

Mark 11:02

Yeah. like the, uh, wasn't it. Well, when I first started driving by there, it was like a 2 99 for a prime rib or something. Wasn't it. If you got 50 gallons of fuel and

Mike R 11:16

Yeah. 2 99.

Mark 11:18

yeah. Oh myself. That's okay.

Mike R 11:25

yeah. Yeah.

Mark 11:27

All right.

Mike R 11:28

that happens. Carl's Jr. Is the best you can get now. Oh, you know, that place, you know, we haul that cheese in the, in and out, in and out as good hamburger. Let's see, let's see, uh, just the other day, uh, I want somewhere with some of my family and they were talking anyway, it came out, you know, we went to some restaurant, right. And, uh, they're ordering this or that. And the other, we, on the way out, I said to my wife, you know, it's a sad story when, uh, Carl's Jr. Is your favorite

Mark 12:10

See, I don't

Mike R 12:11

says, yeah, yeah. I know the feeling.

Mark 12:13

a lot of people hate subway. Um,

Mike R 12:16

Oh, the subway is good

Mark 12:18

I'm not like it's not, you know, if I'm in Logan and I got my pick of. A hundred places to eat. I'm not. going out of my way to eat subway, but on the road, you, you know what you're going to get, you know, you there's not.

Mike R 12:36

yeah,

Mark 12:38

And, Um, like McDonald's, and some of the burger places, um, I've had some. like they've overdone it with the salt or it wasn't cooked quite right. And I'm not a huge I'll eat McDonald's I don't want to sound like, I'm,

Mike R 12:57

oh, I know

Mark 12:58

holier than now. And I won't eat McDonald's or burger king, but if I've got my preference you know, I, it like a Love's it's Carl's Jr. In subway. I'll probably eat subway. So.

Mike R 13:08

Yeah. Oh yeah. And see, I like hot food. So that's the main reason I don't eat subway all the time, because I feel the same way. Subway is good stuff,

Mark 13:21

It's somewhat,

Mike R 13:22

stuff hot,

Mark 13:23

somewhat

Mike R 13:24

I like it hotter than a sandwich, right?

Mark 13:26

It's healthy. It's somewhat healthy. Like,

Mike R 13:29

Oh yeah. Really

Mark 13:30

yeah. Everything.

Mike R 13:31

of the lettuce and everything. Yeah.

Mark 13:34

You know, if I'm just trying to stay away from Greece, all I'll do subway instead of Carl's Jr. But

Mike R 13:40

Yeah. Oh yeah.

Mark 13:41

anyway. All right, buddy. Be careful.

Mike R 13:44

Hey, thanks again.

Mark 13:45

bet. We'll see you, Mike.

Mike R 13:47

Bye bye.

Mark 13:57

It was great talking to Mike Roberts. Again, he's been on the podcast before. He's always a great interview. I love talking to Mike on the phone and uh, and, and chitchatting with him. We, I failed to address in the first segment, why Becky is co-hosting this week. So Becky,

Becki 14:14

well, our daughter, grace, your normal co-host and who is much more, um, Seasoned much more seasoned podcaster with mark and has a much better, uh, on air comedic relief. Uh, she is she's on a study abroad to Rome, Italy. The summer. So she's been over in Rome for the last two weeks. I think she's got one more week there and then she'll head home. But I think it's been a real great experience for her. She's gotten to go to the Vatican twice. They've been down to Florence, uh, but it seems like she's doing an awful lot of homework, so I'm not sure that

Mark 14:55

a lot of

Becki 14:56

not a lot of fun, but I think she's gotten to see some pretty neat things. And, um, I think is looking forward to coming home. I got a text from her this morning that said when you picked me up at the airport,

Mark 15:07

bring me chicken. Cool. Yeah, that'll be fun. I think we do that in a week. So you had mentioned and then this next segment, it's Troy Jensen. We talk about a couple of truck stops in Idaho, and I specifically talk about the Boise stage stop Cause the stage stop is one of my favorites.

Becki 15:28

It's one of the first I remember going to out here, when we moved to Utah, we.

Mark 15:33

went to. Game and Boise and I,

Becki 15:35

We had to stop at the, at the Boise stage stop. And, um, one of the things that I found that was interesting about the Boise stage stop was that it is one of the oldest, continuously operating businesses in Idaho that started in 1891.

Mark 15:49

So it was truly a stage stop,

Becki 15:53

probably

Mark 15:53

symbolize in in 18, 89, 18 91. Well, that was very cool. We'll hop right into our interview with Troy Jensen. I want to talk about truck, stop food.

Troy 16:13

Okay.

Mark 16:15

What, what, what was your favorite place to eat? Whether it's still open or not. And what's your favorite place today?

Troy 16:21

Probably back when I started leaving the state was the travelers always this up there in twin falls?

Mark 16:32

let's still there. That the same one.

Troy 16:35

Yeah. I don't know if the food's as good as, it used to be, but that was my favorite for a long time.

Mark 16:44

They opened a second. Right down by, uh, Chobani's plant. Yeah. Yeah. I actually, I, so just this week I had gone out to Fernley and turned a guy around and he gave me a load of cans. I took those cans up to a Pocatello and I came through twin falls right across 74 or whatever it is. And then you drive by Chobani and there's a new travelers away SIS, right by the Chobani plant. Yeah. I mean the one out by the interstate is still there. I don't know that I've ever eaten That's the travelers racist.

Troy 17:22

My favorite thing. I love chicken fried steak and they used to bring out. A chicken fried steak on One of those big oval plates that took the whole plate up and overlapped. the rest of your food was on a different

Mark 17:36

Did you ever have one at BoomTown

Troy 17:39

I didn't

Mark 17:40

BoomTown was the same way?

Troy 17:42

I only went through there, like maybe twice what it was an actual truck stop.

Mark 17:47

Oh, really?

Troy 17:48

Yeah.

Mark 17:49

I got stuck there one day for about 18 hours and yeah, the, I ordered the chicken fried steak. I want chicken fried steak fan too. And she says, do you want a full or a half? Oh, I'm pretty hungry. I suppose, the fall she says, are you sure? I'm like, yeah, she brought it out. It was bigger than my head, you know, it's like, oh,

Troy 18:13

that's exactly what that lady up to Traveler's Oasis said, you want to hold her a half? And I says, well, a whole. And she says, are you sure you can eat that much? Well, how much is it? She brought it out in my eyeballs about fell out of my head. Holy shit.

Mark 18:31

That's awesome. You ever eat at a oh, what's the one up there at the Boise stage stop.

Troy 18:40

I haven't everybody's, you know, that's so many people's favorite place and I I've never been a big truck, truck stop. guy. I just. There was that, uh, I don't know if it's still open right there, and Wendell at farmers. you know what I'm talking. There's a little cafe and a little small, uh, truck stop Gas station. On the south side,

Mark 19:09

Um, I know where you're talking about, but yeah.

Troy 19:13

used to Stop in there quite a bit. When I was hauling milk up there. it was pretty good.

Mark 19:19

I don't know why. Well, I like to eat. That's probably why, but I, as long as I can remember from when I first started driving, I stopped and ate at truck stops. I hardly ever packed food. You know, just snack stuff is all I'd ever pack, but I know I didn't even have a cooler in the truck for the first, gosh, I don't know, 10, 10 or 15 years. I drove. I stayed out of the truck stops, but there was a lot, you know, you weren't limited to whatever fast food joint was in the Truckstop either.

Troy 19:57

Well, for me, you know, the first 28, to 30 years, that I drove I was hauling milk. So

Mark 20:04

Um

Troy 20:05

I didn't even, even when we were shipping it far, you know, we'd go to Vegas and the Phoenix and the Denver, their last little. And even then I didn't didn't stop that much. I, When I first started, we had a load up through Snellville and I'd stopped in tamales or in Snellville. Occasionally if I had time And back then they had really good breakfast but very rarely until I started pretty much for you guys. And I, I like truck stops. I just, other than the parking running. Grab a part or something. I I never, well, I never even had a truck with a sleeper on it until there was a long time, but I have found one place. that, Well, I take that back. When, When Cooper used to come with since I've been driving for Stokes, we stopped Oh, there's a place in and, uh, I'll I'll tuna That Speedway restaurant is that.

Mark 21:13

Uh, Altoona Iowa. It's a, it's probably the it's at the pilot, but it was bought, it was a and, um, all the restaurants in Balsall mins were called grandma Max's I don't know if they still are.

Troy 21:27

that we, we had some really good meals in there

Mark 21:31

Yup.

Troy 21:32

And then, Uh, The big, big one that, that restaurant in there was

Mark 21:40

Yep. Yeah. See, I maybe it's maybe it's because of where I grew up trucking. Even really close to where my parents' farm was. So three miles from there was, there were two truck stops across the road from each other that were like old time, right in the, going back to the fifties, forties and fifties, that highway that my parents' farm was close to was the main highway between Omaha and Denver. So. Their house was about 40 miles, 40 to 50 miles west of Omaha. So it was one of the first places anybody would stop on their way to Denver or the last place they'd stop on their way from Denver to Omaha, you know that the meat hollers. So these two. Neither of them exist anymore. They're both gas stations now, but they're not truck stops. But when I was a little kid, they were still truck stops where truck drivers would, you know, we'd go in there for breakfast or in the afternoons, dad go there to have coffee and there'd be truck drivers in there stopping to have their. For the day. And when now I, this predates me, but my parents, my dad told me when they first moved there in the sixties, both of those were 24 hour restaurants, truck stops, right? Like full service. You pull up to the pump and. Like in smokey and the bandit, you know, fill it up, give me a Diablo sandwich and a Dr. Pepper. I'm like, God damn hurry. Right. Kind of place. So then when I started driving, because that was what I, you know, smoking in the bandit and BJ and the bear, that's kind of what I grew up on. I did stop at a lot of truck stops. Like I never left on time. I'd drive all night long and I'd stop at 24 hour restaurants. I dunno, I was horrible. I'm so lucky. I never got in trouble,

Troy 23:47

I would have, if, if you know, they were there, Along the routes that I went there was there just wasn't that many,

Mark 23:55

yeah, back in the Midwest, there were quite a few, I guess, like places like that, close to where I grew up. Um, but they don't exist hardly. Any of them exist anymore, you know? All right. Well, this was fun. Thanks for taking my call.

Troy 24:13

Sure.

Mark 24:15

Be careful. We'll uh, we'll we'll chat soon. One thing about east of the Mississippi though, those are the originals man. Like those are the kinds of places we can talk about this, but I always knew it was going to be a good place to eat if I walked in and I see. And Little jukeboxes at the booth. It was a bingo. this. is the spot.

Becki 24:51

So tell me about Walcott about the IAT Iowa 80

Mark 24:55

for 20 years.

Becki 24:57

I think I remember eating there with, we've been to, we've been there before.

Mark 25:01

probably

Becki 25:02

Um, it's like the largest,

Mark 25:04

it's the world's largest truck

Becki 25:05

stop.

Mark 25:06

that's their claim. And I don't know if they're going off of acreage or parking spaces or The stop itself. I mean, all, everything about it is huge. There's a gigantic truck museum. that they continue to add on to, trucking in the Midwest because of the location. Right. Walcott's 160 miles from Chicago. It's right in the center of the country, everything transited through there. So, so Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana,

Becki 25:42

Ohio,

Mark 25:44

I would call that like the of trucking. Right. And so the truck stops there

Becki 25:50

kind of grew up around

Mark 25:51

Yeah. And they were, they were the original ones that when we talk about restaurants and I said, if it had. a Jukebox in the booth. A lot of those places, when I first started driving, you could find those. I mean, it was regular you'd walk in somewhere and see, that.

Becki 26:09

was that a truck stop restaurant in or the Ashland that had the big guy? Was it the Ashland?

Mark 26:21

Oh, the happy chef. Yeah. They were as happy chefs all over the Midwest. There's still some of them up in Minnesota. There's a guy I follow on Instagram called his name's flannel Phillip. He He's like a Instagram influencer in

Becki 26:35

trouble.

Mark 26:36

I I'd say he actually drives up Peter. or. Kenworth pulls dump bucket local in Minnesota, but he does pin striping and

Becki 26:45

all

Mark 26:45

repair work and all kinds of things. on the

Becki 26:48

remember the days when he used to paint your tires?

Mark 26:50

he, don't tell anybody we gotta cut that out. final Phillip on Instagram. And He's a good follow. He he'd post a lot of trucking stuff, but just this week he posted a big

Becki 27:03

point

Mark 27:04

Did he drove by in Minnesota. Like he posts pictures of things like that. trucks. Yeah. They're all over the Midwest. I guess we ought to hop right into our interview with Larry claimants. Larry drives truck 6 77 for us. He's one of our newer drivers, but he's been around. He's got, a. want to throw his age out there, but I think he's pushing 40 years driving truck. So he knows his stuff. When it comes to truck stop restaurants So I'm wondering what your favorite Truckstop restaurant in your career has been, whether it's still still in business or not.

Larry C 27:51

oh, uh, it's Berets up in Montana on interstate 15. It's all home cooked. It's a small cafe. It's awesome. Food.

Mark 28:01

where's it at

Larry C 28:03

Barrett's Montana.

Mark 28:04

Barrett's Montana. That's the

Larry C 28:05

Uh huh. Yeah. It's it's uh, probably 20, maybe 20 miles south of. On interstate 15. Oh my God, mark. They got the best breakfast in burgers you'll ever eat. Everything's home cook. Yeah. The, even the bond, you know, they're not the bonds, like you'd get out of the, you know, the bag and that, you know, they're not even, you know, they're little smoked or whatever, but man, it's awesome food.

Mark 28:34

all by hand. Huh?

Larry C 28:36

Yes.

Mark 28:37

No kidding. And

Larry C 28:38

They And then like the, uh, sausage, uh, omelets that the Italian sausage. Oh my God. It's got an awesome taste.

Mark 28:49

that's a, that's a new one. I've never, I've never heard of it. I don't think I've ever been up through

Larry C 28:53

yeah it's uh, like I say, it's probably maybe not 20 miles, maybe 12 miles, 10, 12 miles south of Dylan. Right on interstate 15 as you go past, uh, Glen's resume. And that it would be as bad as you go through that canyon. You'll see. Um, Gibbs' a Jetson plant on the right. And then on the very left as you go north, you'll see barracks, it's a small, it's a small truck stop con you know, I mean, it's not, you know, it's all gravel and dirt. I mean, there's, I think there's like two pumps for trucks, diesel trucks, and a couple for cars, but mark, you're get up there. You've got to stop.

Mark 29:35

so, so it's not a chain at all. It's it's

Larry C 29:38

No no, no. Uh,

Mark 29:41

awesome.

Larry C 29:43

I marked, you got to go there. If you ever get a chance. That's one of the things I miss about not going up in the Northwest because we always everybody's stopped at Barrett's and that,

Mark 29:56

w maybe I'll have to go up there this summer. Me and me and my wife were talking about taking vacation.

Larry C 30:01

know what? Go up there. There's a, up on the 90. There's a neat place. It's right next to the Clark, uh, Clark, uh, w the, the Clark Clark river, I think it's a Clark river. It's uh, God, it's bear. Damn. I wish my memory was better. Bear lodge. I think it is. And it's rat the law. It's an old style hotel and it's red on the banks of the. And what's nice. There's a golf course, just up a few miles down the road

Mark 30:37

Oh, really?

Larry C 30:38

that never played it, but it looks awesome.

Mark 30:43

That's cool. Well, both, both those places sound awesome. I need, to

Larry C 30:49

yeah Oh yes. But I mean, you better have got the stuff at the Berets. I mean, it's, you know, there's a big devastation suit that fresh ground hamburger, not, you know what I mean?

Mark 31:03

Yeah.

Larry C 31:04

And, and, uh, you know, the thick slides is, uh, bacon and that, oh yeah, man, I'm hungry now.

Mark 31:15

Sorry.

Larry C 31:17

Yeah, that's a good, but yeah, mark that's by far, my favorite far and away.

Mark 31:23

Awesome. I'll uh, I'll take you up on it. I appreciate it.

Larry C 31:26

you bet.

Mark 31:27

All right, Larry. That was all I needed.

Larry C 31:29

Okay. Thanks mark. We'll talk to you later, boss

Mark 31:32

right. See you, sir.

Larry C 31:32

You have good day. Bye bye-bye.

Becki 31:44

Okay, mark. So of these two truck stop restaurants, which one have you eaten at

Mark 31:50

which tour though is

Becki 31:51

the taste of India,

Mark 31:53

which is in.

Becki 31:54

in over to Nebraska,

Mark 31:56

exit 2 48. It's a former burns brothers truck stop. I would've eaten there when he was a burns brothers.

Becki 32:04

Or

Mark 32:05

haven't eaten there since

Becki 32:07

you're answering, you're answering the question too fast. Or max is thunder road grill at the boss.

Mark 32:15

So I have eaten at Max's thunder road grill. Now we gotta go back up a little bit, cause that used to be called grandma. Mack's. All the Bosselman truck stops had grandma Max's restaurants in them. I'm not sure when the Max's thunder road grill came around. I know I've eaten there one time since it's been rebranded and that's at exit three 12. On the north side of the road, it's pilot truck stop, but it used to be a boss Hillman's

Becki 32:45

on IAT. in in, Nebraska

Mark 32:48

at exit 2 48. Is this taste of India,

Becki 32:51

which I've found on several sites is like the most popular Truckstop restaurant in Nebraska.

Mark 32:57

you do a little Googling, you will find that there are people that drive hundreds of miles. To eat at the taste of India at the overtime exit in Nebraska at, at an old burns brothers truck stop. Uh, not my kind of

Becki 33:16

I would stop there.

Mark 33:18

Well, we usually, usually when we're tracking back to Nebraska, we got to stop at Yes The taco time of, of Nebraska.

Becki 33:31

but I, I, I'm going to tell all the listeners that when we travel back to Nebraska,

Mark 33:37

a family

Becki 33:38

It has never drive through and grab food and keep on trucking. It is we have to stop and eat

Mark 33:44

sit down

Becki 33:45

and sit down and it, it comes from you and your truck driving and sitting at these restaurants

Mark 33:53

well

Becki 33:53

the road. And you don't want food in your truck. Yeah

Mark 33:56

A lot of it is you guys are too messy to eat.

Becki 33:58

vehicle think you're too

Mark 34:01

like, well, I to eat and not worry about spilling on

Becki 34:06

myself.

Mark 34:07

sometimes when you're like, how'd you eat that so fast while I'm trying to eat it before it falls all over my lap. So the quicker I can ingest it,

Becki 34:17

And you had to get back out on the road tail,

Mark 34:20

uh, back in the day. He didn't worry quite so much, but your schedule like you do today,

Becki 34:27

well, to worry a lot more about my schedule for lunch. Taught high school. And I only a certain amount of

Mark 34:35

28 minutes between bells.

Becki 34:37

probably.

Mark 34:39

All right. Let's uh, roll into our next interview with Gary Hughes driver of truck 6 83 Can I bug you a minute.

Gary H 34:57

Yup.

Mark 34:57

I'm recording some segments for the podcast

Gary H 35:00

Okay.

Mark 35:01

and I'm doing it on Truckstop food.

Gary H 35:04

Oh,

Mark 35:07

So I'm trying to, I'm trying to call some of my older, more experienced drivers to find out where their favorite place to eat was.

Gary H 35:16

my favorite place used to be.

Mark 35:19

Mini any Petro, just one of the iron skillets in there.

Gary H 35:22

Yeah, the iron skillets used to be the best.

Mark 35:25

When you say used to be how many years ago?

Gary H 35:28

I don't know. I'm going to say over the last, probably about 10 years ago and before that, but over the last 10 years, I, well, it was right around the time that TA bottom out. they, uh, they kind of went downhill.

Mark 35:43

How one was that? Um, mid, mid two thousands, right? Like, oh 5 0 6, somewhere in there.

Gary H 35:50

Yeah, right around in there.

Mark 35:52

Any other little independence you ever liked eating at?

Gary H 35:56

Uh, JJs and Arkansas. I think it's it though. 1 0 5. They used to be pretty good, but I haven't been there. And I'm going to say in probably 10, 12 years. Um, no, it's 30.

Mark 36:11

Oh, down between a little rock and, and Dallas, I guess.

Gary H 36:17

Yeah, yeah. Right around there. It's Just south of, a little rock there. I think it's around the 1 0 5, 1 0 6 something like that. They used to be pretty good. And then my fate, my favorite all time, place to go eat breakfast would be the, pancake house and Gedo mills they're on and Texas.

Mark 36:40

Hmm, that's a new one. That there's one I haven't heard of.

Gary H 36:44

Yeah. It's called the pancake house It's right across the street from the pilot there in Cato mills. You could go in there, sausage, egg, a couple of pancakes, French toast, whichever one you want a cup of coffee. And you'd get out of there for less than eight

Mark 37:00

Really.

Gary H 37:02

Yeah. And it was actually pretty good. I mean, it, it was actually good. I mean, it wasn't, you could tell, uh, the sausage patties weren't like completely round. They would be know, it looked like he got Like he made them by hand, they'd be thrown you know, thrown together. and they, It wouldn't be perfectly round or, you know, frozen or anything like that. they were actually really, really

Mark 37:28

Hmm. Okay. You got to look up the town. There is a truck stop at a town in Missouri. I used to drive through all the time that had, that was cheap. Like it was super cheap to eat at,

Gary H 37:44

Right?

Mark 37:44

it tasted cheap. It was cheap for a reason,

Gary H 37:49

Right. There's a, used to be a place that we used to stop at, but I want to say. It's in Kentucky on I, 71, And I want to say It was just south of the racetrack there. When you got south of like a Walton Kentucky off of 71, I think it was like exit 62 and he'd get off the ramp and make a left. And they had truck parking and it looked like just a little hole in a wall, mom and pop place He used to go in there probably four or five times a month just to get in there when I was running And. uh, You could go in there and get a pretty decent meal. And I'd say if I remember right. And that's just been awhile, um, actually before I started pipeline and back in 2015, so it's been, I'm going to say probably eight or nine, maybe possibly 10 years. I don't even know if the place is still open, but it had BP. It was like a BP gas station. I had drug fuel. You go in there and sit down and And, uh, you could probably get out of there. I'd say probably 10 or 11 bucks. And if you walked out. of there full, it was your own fault because they usually, the plate had more food on it than what you ever thought. it was going to have. Yeah, it was, they, They were really good and it was just a little mom and pop country place. And, uh, they were, they were, phenomenal,

Mark 39:08

it was a little hole hole in a wall. Places always seemed to be the best

Gary H 39:15

And there was, um, a sub shop down on I 30 And. right there. Let's see the da was no, it was the loves the loves. Was at one way off the exit And if you went the other way? We used to go in there and the best cheese, steak sandwiches. You can imagine, They'd, he'd say they're a foot long, but they're probably, I'm going to say probably 14 to 16. I mean, they were huge

Mark 39:40

He always gave you more than what you were, what you.

Gary H 39:42

yeah. And by the, And by the time put all the stuff on it and all the toppings and melted the cheese on it, that thing was probably about as big around as a softball. I mean, it was two meals. You go in there and it'd be like six, six, you know, six, seven bucks. And you could eat half of it. Wrap the other half up, and stick it in there and nuke it later and make two meals out of it. It was so much food. I was just like, you don't see that anymore.

Mark 40:08

My, uh, my crappy restaurant was the snappy Mart in west Plains, Missouri that's. I looked it up

Gary H 40:16

I think I know where you're

Mark 40:18

w west Plains is, uh, almost due north of little rock. Um, not too far north, the Arkansas border is on the west side of the road.

Gary H 40:29

just north of Fayetteville.

Mark 40:31

Uh, no, this is over more like the I'd call it south central, Missouri. Right in the middle of Missouri. So I delivered cooking oil to Batesville, Arkansas. There's a chicken plant there. And west Plains I'd stopped to get coffee quite often. Um, and they had a restaurant that had really, it was really cheap. Like I had a buddy that we made fun of him because he was cheap and he loved stopping there to eat, but it was cheap. It was cheap. Like it tasted, it was terrible. It was terrible. But you could eat there for like five bucks, you know? I mean, you'd fill you up.

Gary H 41:12

you don't find waste as I get any

Mark 41:14

No, no, there is another place on the north side of Batesville it was like the biggest barbecue restaurant in Batesville. They, they were, they were smoking about 20 pork butts a day, every day. So I'd go by, I'd go by there at two or three in the morning. And the smoker was. Because they were smoking all night long for, for the food for the whole day. I could go in there eight in the morning and get fresh right out of the smoker, pulled pork that they just pulled, you know, um, great. They had great barbecue. I can't, that was like a, uh, Conoco or something just right on the north side at, uh, Batesville, just a little, little, little truck. Stop. Anyway, the good old days. So

Gary H 41:58

And then, and

Mark 41:59

you were,

Gary H 42:00

then a

Mark 42:00

mentioned a lot of stuff on I guess you were running from Ohio to California.

Gary H 42:08

a lot of, Well, yeah, that a lot of Texas, um, we got a lot, of rent, a lot of air freight down to Southern Texas. Uh, San Antonio, Dallas Waco. Um, Matter of fact, we used to go down there and there was a little gas station off that exit. And I can remember to tell you what exit it was. Um, it's right there, where the Waco airport was and we were running air freight down. There And when, uh, George Bush Jr. Was president and we would get off the exit. And I guess when he came in, when he flew in, I guess he lived down in that area. I'm not sure exactly where at, in that area, but we would come down there and they would have the road blocked off and We'd have to park at that gas station and go in. And I go in there and grab something to eat while we were waiting. And we'd have to wait for either him to land and watch his little entourage, you know, his little secret service guys and him or whoever, they would go flying out at a hundred mile an hour. And then they'd open it back up after his plane took back off, or if he was leaving, we'd have to wait for his plane to take off for us. to be able to get into the terminal.

Mark 43:16

Hmm. Interesting.

Gary H 43:18

There was another place real quick. Uh, south on the way down to Florida and lake park, Georgia, big Ed's barbecue. The only place on earth I've ever found to get barbecued Tuna,

Mark 43:29

really?

Gary H 43:31

Yeah. used to advertise that.

Mark 43:34

no kidding. Like smoke.

Gary H 43:37

Yup. He will actually smoke the tuna and based it, in barbecue sauce. never thought it sounded good. but I'm not going to lie. It's actually pretty damn Doesn't sound very appealing, but It's actually pretty good, but it was big ass barbecue in lake park. Georgia.

Mark 43:55

Well, there's a new one. Never heard of that one either. I've been through there, but never heard of that. One of these

Gary H 44:01

He was a C the TA was at exit two. I don't remember where the pilot was at, but I believe, uh, he was an exit six. And he always advertised on the CB you'd drive by. And it'd be come in and come in and try it. big heads, barbecue. And he'd sit there And barbecue ribs, barbecue, this barbecue, that, and I heard barbecue tuna one day and I was like, okay. Never heard of that, make it a point on the way back up we stopped. It was actually pretty good.

Mark 44:30

cool. Thank you.

Gary H 44:34

Not a problem.

Mark 44:34

All right. See ya.

Becki 44:44

Okay. So another, another Truckstop cafe that I'm not sure that you've stopped at is the canned Coon Mexican restaurant in beaver, Utah.

Mark 44:53

I've I have eaten there. So this is off your list of the best Truckstop and every

Becki 44:58

in every, state

Mark 45:00

We'll post a link to this list in the show notes. If I remember right, this is inside the flying J and I've had street tacos from there. They're good. They're decent. I would not call it the best Trex Truckstop restaurant in Utah.

Becki 45:16

but they do have handmade tamales

Mark 45:18

Well, who

Becki 45:20

and tacos and margaritas.

Mark 45:23

Really,

Becki 45:24

That's what it says.

Mark 45:25

maybe this isn't the one I'm thinking of, then maybe I haven't eaten I might be totally wrong about So I think me personally, this is me. The best truck stop restaurant today in Utah is trails west in green river, Utah.

Becki 45:46

The

Mark 45:47

Flying J jails west is next door. It's what I'd call one of the old classics, kind of very close, a close second. I would say the ranch house in Snellville,

Becki 46:02

all these

Mark 46:03

I mean, Molly's is

Becki 46:05

it's

Mark 46:05

of what you'd

Becki 46:07

It's is that the, that's the one on the other side of The road

Mark 46:09

is on the other side of the road quite often.

Becki 46:11

If I'm

Mark 46:13

Running out there that direction. I make a point to stop at the ranch house and have a burger and a salad. If I have time, I try to, pretty good. There's not a whole lot of truck stop restaurants anymore. This one in beaver. I don't, I'm not familiar with it. I'm sure. I'm sure. One of my drivers is

Becki 46:32

we'll have to, um, have to try it the next time we're headed that direction.

Mark 46:37

We will. Let's hop into our interview with Bruce grow. Bruce is a owner operator who pulls our trailers. He's been with us. Oh boy. Um, a few years. I'm going to say four or five years, maybe six. It's been awhile. We love having Bruce around and we'll talk to him next.

Bruce G 47:07

You just the what stop and eat at truck stops before you felt like he was on the clock, that many you started your day till the day. Hell it ends

Mark 47:18

yeah, back in the day. but

Bruce G 47:20

back in the day.

Mark 47:22

I'm trying to, I'm trying to check with some of the more experienced drivers. Great. I'm not calling you old, Bruce, your experienced w what was your favorite place to stop back when you had time to stop

Bruce G 47:37

Uh, usually the Petro and PA because of the, the buffet with choices.

Mark 47:44

iron skillet, dire and scale at the Petro.

Bruce G 47:48

Yeah.

Mark 47:49

Was there any little mom and pops you'd ever stop at?

Bruce G 47:53

Oh yeah. There was a place down in mom and pops place in Roswell, New Mexico. And. And we usually was coming through there on a Friday afternoon. And that was catfish night. Their catfish down there was pretty good.

Mark 48:09

Oh, really? Do you don't remember the name of it? Do you?

Bruce G 48:13

and no, not for sure. It was on, it was on the north end of Roswell. The only stop that they had down there years ago.

Mark 48:24

Yeah, I I've been through there, but it's been, it's been years since I've been through there too. Yeah.

Bruce G 48:32

same, same here. It's been a lot of years. This is back in the

Mark 48:37

Nice.

Bruce G 48:38

and know,

Mark 48:41

back. When, when you used to stop once or twice a day to eat, actually sit down and eat a meal,

Bruce G 48:47

yeah. When you stop, when you used to stop and sit down and eat a meal and then. Slept five hours at night and took off again. That's that's that's that's that's the way you did it back then. So you had time to stop and eat and still get where you needed to be.

Mark 49:06

That would be an interesting study to see if we were, if we were healthier than cause We were actually taking time to you didn't you. Weren't always rushed. right? Like What was it? healthier? Not have to stop. for 10 hours a night and be able to take your time, or is it healthier the way it is today?

Bruce G 49:30

I don't know. The doctor said it must be healthier the way I'm doing it today because he said, he says, he says over the last 15 years, I've lost about 20 pounds, 25 pounds. Since I first started going and saying,

Mark 49:44

oh, no Well, good for you. See, you just, you just blew my thesis out of the water right there, Bruce.

Bruce G 49:51

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the problem is, is when you, when you sit down and eat, you know, two square meals a day, you know, you just didn't settle for the salad bar. You know, you had something else, I guess back then, if it was settling for the salad bar, then I guess we probably wouldn't have had the 25 pounds to lose. Right.

Mark 50:12

That's true. You're the, you're the second one I've talked to that's uh, mentioned the iron skillet. I I've, I mean, Back when, that was kind of a regular stop for me, I guess. And it was because of the salad bar. I'm a salad bar. guy. I like salad bars. Um,

Bruce G 50:34

Well, there was, there was another thing to even be even going on back then, you know, most of the Petros and th you know, especially the Petros had, you know, good sized parking lot. So when you got there, you always felt like you could find you a place to.

Mark 50:50

Yeah, that's true. You bet.

Bruce G 50:52

Yeah. I remember watching, uh, the 50th anniversary of the Superbowl in the Petro, outside their Atlanta, Georgia.

Mark 51:04

Uh, the one on the west side of town or south of town?

Bruce G 51:08

uh, the one kind of on a, I don't know.

Mark 51:14

Well,

Bruce G 51:15

Well, we're up to 56 last year. That's six years ago. Yeah,

Mark 51:20

there's a Petro. I think there's a Petro just on the west side of Atlanta, like on the west end. um, on the loop, right? on the 2, 2 85 loop. I think it is.

Bruce G 51:32

That's fine.

Mark 51:33

Okay. Yeah. There's another one south of town. I guess. It's Macon. It's quite a way south of Atlanta. it's making

Bruce G 51:41

I've been been to that one too, but that one's not near as big as one.

Mark 51:51

man.

Bruce G 51:53

And then you go from Atlanta, Georgia to the next year. Yup. They're watching it in, in North Dakota when it's minus five degrees for the high, during the day.

Mark 52:05

boy.

Bruce G 52:08

then a couple of years later, your watch, well, it was 2019 when he was actually a lot of, to watch truck stops, you know, in a truck stop. So that's when 49ers and the Kansas city chiefs played in, made that up to PA and trout. They only watch that one up.

Mark 52:28

COVID was perfect for all the Truckstops get rid of their tracker lounges. Right.

Bruce G 52:34

some of them have, some of them are just using them as storage. And if you can lean against the box, you'll, you know, stuff, they got slack there. They'll still let you watch the TV.

Mark 52:50

All right, Bruce. Well, I appreciate you taking.

Bruce G 52:54

anytime.

Mark 52:54

All right, buddy. Be careful.

Bruce G 52:56

Okay. Thanks.

Becki 53:06

Okay. Here's one that I wanted to talk to you about before I asked you about the one Val is going to talk about. This is the Sonic at Gore's travel Plaza and it looks like. Salian Oklahoma.

Mark 53:20

S E I L I N Oklahoma.

Becki 53:24

Yes it does. Okay. So you all know that Sonic doesn't offer that homemade food, but this place actually has a fast food joint with truck accessible car hops, and you can pull your semis in to. Order your at this place? Um, I was, when I was researching for this episode, we thought that

Mark 53:50

that's pretty

Becki 53:51

that is an idea.

Mark 53:53

So you found another list of the top 12,

Becki 53:57

right?

Mark 53:58

And the very first one on the list is the thunder road. Max's thunder road, restaurant grand island, which we've already talked

Becki 54:05

Right.

Mark 54:05

But number two

Becki 54:07

is the outpost cafe in Oak Hills, California,

Mark 54:10

is one that's one that Val talks about

Becki 54:13

Does he talk about, does he talk about hot beer, lousy food and bad service?

Mark 54:19

No, he does not talk any of those things.

Becki 54:22

Well, evidently the reason why people like it is because they have this great sense of humor. So the online reviews of the cafe proved the negativity is all in fun. They've got great cheeseburgers and steaks and their staff is really friendly, but they're at that pilot, um, travel center on I 15, they have a laundromat, a laundromat, a game room, 11 showers in the chapel.

Mark 54:50

There's a lot of things right there at that exit. It's one of Val's favorite haunts. I don't think I've ever eaten there, but the next time I go to LA, I got to stop. So here's our interview with Val Stokes So in the past you told me like the one that's still open today. That's your favorite is the outpost.

Val 55:19

Oh yeah. The outpost is a fun place to stop.

Mark 55:23

I don't know if I've ever eaten there. It's a Hisperia

Val 55:26

yeah, Hold on a little sense of J or a pilot there. I think it's a pilot up there. on top of the hill. 3 95 merges on

Mark 55:34

Is that restaurants out in the, out, in the parking lot, right? Like

Val 55:40

here. it's over, closer to each, between the off ramp. and

Mark 55:45

So what do you eat when you go there? What'd you eat the last time you were at the app post

Val 55:50

probably a salad. The hamburger, not breakfast.

Mark 55:56

Uh, when was the first time you ever ate at the outpost?

Val 55:59

probably 40 years ago. I didn't know. It was Still? there either until, you know, a few years ago, when I took a load down that way I knew I was going to have to stop and rest. There So I was getting off the freeway. I looked over there who saw it. So I got parked. Did my 10. Well, I walked over there and had breakfast. It's pretty sweet

Mark 56:25

So is there any place back in the day when you were a truck and way back when, where you, you made sure you stopped when you were going somewhere?

Val 56:40

it's all city now. So on the south side of Los Vegas, but it was it wasn't before, like once you got by the airport, you're in the desert and there was an exit there for per ramp. There was a union 76 Truckstop there, and they had a good restaurant I'd usually stop there and get some fuel and get a bite to eat. Then make my way on down, shake it down. They had good restaurants and all their trucks. dogs Where the, where the pilot is. And when a McKay, he used to be a union, 76 Truckstop too, also many, you know, way, way back then they had a restaurant in there. It was decent.

Mark 57:24

I don't think

Val 57:25

And they had one at grand island that I stopped at sometimes. but I used WhatsApp. Well, there was a union 76 truck stop there.

Mark 57:41

Oh, it's west to west of grand island.

Val 57:43

Yeah.

Mark 57:44

still there wood river. Yeah.

Val 57:48

And I'd usually, if I. I happened to coincide with a mealtime ID there at north Platte to, I seek that was a Husky truck stops there and they had a truck wash there too, a little independent truck wash just on the backside of the lot that was not bad. And There was almost never a line there. So sometimes I'd stop there and get a Washington

Mark 58:17

back in the day.

Val 58:18

But all, But all the, there were a lot of independent truck stops in those days. And all of them had, a good restaurant I thought, you know, maybe I just didn't know what good food was back then, too. it seemed like, you know, they'd have a variety of stuff on the menu. If you stop with any of these places now, it's, you know, whatever Wendy serves or you know, Carl's Jr or subway, you know, and I guess. That's okay. But A little variety It'd be, I mean, places that always had a special what's a special tonight. You could always get a good dinner

Mark 59:05

Yeah.

Val 59:07

I have no idea what the name of it was, but there was a pretty good place in Madison, Wisconsin, too, that I always used to go to, go on a regular basis for quite a little while. I can't remember the name of the place but there was a decent one there.

Mark 59:24

I don't remember there ever being a Truckstop in Madison itself. There's one on either side of town that

Val 59:33

It's been a long, long time.

Mark 59:36

they were just fuel stops too, you know?

Val 59:40

Yeah. There was places One of the like bingo maybe a few of The guys will remember the bingo, feel stops. I don't want to say Truckstop cause they're just cheap. Gurindji achieved. Feel, feel stopped.

Mark 59:59

a little independent mom and pop. I stopped at one in Indiana on it was on a two lane road. I had a, you remember back in the day when they used to have the truck stop directories. Right. And you could, you could look up all the different truck stops, no matter what road it was on in the directory, it was split up by state. So that was like, you know, when I started driving, we didn't really have cell phones. Yeah. Yeah. And I was, everything was new territory to me when I first started driving. So I wore out that little truck stop dress. And it would tell you how many parking spaces they had and if they had a restaurant and if they're open 24 hours and showers and all that stuff, you so I stopped in this little, I can't remember the town. It was tiny. It was the last truck stop. I had like 20 miles to go to wherever I was delivering. And I bought. And I walk in and I'm like, I need a shower. She says, you're going to take a shower here. And I'm like, yeah, I need a shower, bad. I was pulling flatbed. You know, I said all I really needs a hose hose and some soap. And she says, that's pretty much what you're getting. She wasn't far off. It was. Hmm, boy.

Val 1:01:20

So that's one thing I'll say is probably better now than back then, although you might have to wait, your turn, but these truck stops now, but they have good shots. And they take Pretty good care of them. the ones. I've been in in the back then, You know, all these independent truck stops. That might be pretty nice, but it might be. like what you described bad news, you know,

Mark 1:01:51

Um, good times. It was kind of fun back in the day. Not really knowing what you're going to get, you know?

Val 1:02:00

Yeah the crossroads here in Treemont and out there, There was a well, I worked out there when there was a truck stop for off and on for some years, and then you got a good cafe there. You know, it wasn't. a chain. It was Just a nice cafe, a decent meals there.

Mark 1:02:20

so you might know this, um, Angie's here in Logan. Was that, uh, back in the day, a trucker hang out at all truck drivers? No,

Val 1:02:32

No, I don't think so. I see Well, I think if you went back in time for enough that Might've been a samples.

Mark 1:02:44

That I don't even know that night. Well, I mean, I know that

Val 1:02:47

uh, there were a few of them around way back. It was like a chain. It was kind of like a Danny's, you know, kind of like a diner

Mark 1:02:55

Okay. All right. Hmm. All right.

Val 1:03:02

So, I don't know. My memory is not good enough to help you out very much. but you know, another thing I don't, it wasn't this. Thanksgiving, But a year, a year and a half ago on Thanksgiving, I was coming home from LA. I delivered down there on Thanksgiving morning, and Jimmy was able to get a load of bananas, like pick up. that morning and head home. So all the way up the road I was thinking about this, when I, when I was young, when w when I was driving, just, you know, back into the Midwest, all those places, out at a restaurant And they'd always give you a free dinner on Thanksgiving And that whole day driving home, I drove all the way up to like, I dunno where I stopped. down around. I probably made it blue. I didn't make it to defy. I can't remember somewhere down there, I couldn't join anything even open, you know, let alone a decent That was, it was just, it's just a lot different now. I think They just expect you to deliver the goods and live on follow-up and sugar. nowadays. Well, it's all in places.

Mark 1:04:26

Nobody has time to stop and eat anymore.

Val 1:04:28

Well, there's that too. We had a lot. It seems like we had all kinds of time to stop and have a decent meal. know. And mosey on down the road. We were never racing the clock. It didn't seem like so,

Mark 1:04:45

You're going fast because you want it to not cause you had to. Hmm. All right.

Val 1:04:53

I guess that's why most of these guys nowadays carry a lot of their food with them.

Mark 1:04:59

refrigerators. Microwaves. Yup.

Val 1:05:05

Alright.

Mark 1:05:06

good. Thanks.

Val 1:05:08

My pleasure.

Mark 1:05:09

Talk to you later. great interview with Val. I love having him on the podcast whenever he has a chance to join me, or I have a reason to call him maybe as what I should say. I'm a little under prepared for this episode. So I don't really have a question from the road.

Becki 1:05:34

But I've got a question for you.

Mark 1:05:36

Okay. What's

Becki 1:05:37

So you've been in, you've been in the industry for awhile. You started off pretty young driving truck. Um, and I remember we were dating, getting some food from a truck stop, I wanted to ask you, um, what are your favorite trucks?

Mark 1:05:59

stops. So my, my favorite truck stop of all time. I've really got two of them. They happen to be across the road from each other, and I grew up three miles from on highway 92, just west of wa. There were two truck stops. One was called hackles. The other one was the white way. Cafe hackles closed, man. long have we been married? 25.

Becki 1:06:31

Yeah. I least something like

Mark 1:06:33

hackles would have closed 25, 26 years ago. They had amazing fried chicken. We found out later that it was amazing because it was made with lard. Um, they didn't have a phone. Truckstop itself did not have a phone. There was a payphone inside the restaurant. And every once in a while that payphone had ring and a waitress would go answer it and she'd take an order. Cause everybody knew everybody, all the locals knew the phone number for hackles was the payphone. Right And that's how you placed it to go order, which when you said we went there to get food one time, that's how we placed the order. right.

Becki 1:07:11

Was this the place that, uh, had the dressing in the three little caddy of three

Mark 1:07:18

had a dressing

Becki 1:07:19

boat,

Mark 1:07:20

that they'd bring to your table. And it was always a thousand island, uh, French. We were Dorothy Lynch and Italian.

Becki 1:07:31

Okay. So no ranch.

Mark 1:07:32

That's the Italian dressing.

Becki 1:07:34

Oh, that I've got the recipe for upstairs.

Mark 1:07:36

they had one that was. One, that was for the one that had foreign. It had a green goddess in it but no ranch. You had to ask for ranch. So I grew up on that Italian dressing. You've made it a timer to Valen. Julie have had it every, every time you make it, everybody loves it. It's because it's full of sugar.

Becki 1:07:55

it. has vinegar oil, sugar. Yeah,

Mark 1:07:59

oregano. Um it's really, really good. The other one white way on the, on the north side of the road ended up being Bauer's white way cafe, and then it became Reza watches. It's closed now to Marianne who actually got the, the recipe for the fried chicken

Becki 1:08:17

and dress and the dressing,

Mark 1:08:20

ended up running the restaurant to the, across the street to the north after hackles closed

Becki 1:08:25

Oh, they have the best pie.

Mark 1:08:27

great pie merengue, the coconut cream that had a Marangu. That was no joke was four inches tall.

Becki 1:08:35

Yeah, great.

Mark 1:08:36

It was amazing. It was amazing

Becki 1:08:38

Seminoles, the kids love the cinnamon.

Mark 1:08:40

roll chocolate milk and a boot. those are long closed.

Becki 1:08:46

Right? My favorite, my favorite thing to get at rosaceas was the ham steak and dumplings.

Mark 1:08:53

I never, I don't think I ever once got the hams

Becki 1:08:56

oh, it was so good.

Mark 1:08:57

I'd get a chef salad and I'd get Italian and ranch.

Becki 1:09:01

Amazing, had always had great food

Mark 1:09:05

Today. I gravitate towards a lot of the guys in this episode. Talk about, uh, the Petro. I skill it. The salad bar.

Becki 1:09:14

Oh yeah.

Mark 1:09:15

Today I go for a good salad bar, wherever I can find them. There's not very many round or a good salad. Most of the Sapp brothers restaurants have good salads. The one in salt lake city is the exception to that. Believe it or not, Elm Creek Nebraska sat brothers Fremont, Nebraska has a no-no Fremont. Columbus has restaurant. Uh, Omaha has a restaurant Harris. Uh, Harrisonville Missouri has restaurant. There's actually a sat brothers in Pennsylvania that has a restaurant. And then one you mentioned kind of in passing. I don't know if it's gonna, if it's on here. Um, our place at Morris, Illinois, amazing restaurant. That's just west Chicago. Great big parking lot. You can usually find a place to park there. If you ever through there, I'd highly recommend our place. So thanks for joining us for another episode. I'll try and get a, another episode out soon.

Becki 1:10:15

Give him some ideas.

Mark 1:10:16

I need ideas. Like, I don't know what to talk about. What should we talk about how the robots are coming? No birds. Aren't real. How do we get a younger generation interested in trucking?

Becki 1:10:31

that? That would be pretty. You want to have to bring.

Mark 1:10:34

some

Becki 1:10:36

People that are smarter than I am to talk about.

Mark 1:10:39

I think it needs to be people that are younger too.

Becki 1:10:41

Oh, for sure.

Mark 1:10:43

I don't, I don't know what it interests my son and daughter, like what would interest you in doing this?

Becki 1:10:53

The, uh, opportunities for growth, personal professional, right. Um,

Mark 1:11:00

It's so hard could, because for so long people became truck drivers because they either like me grew up watching the truck. Drivers were cool. They were cool in the seventies.

Becki 1:11:14

They were for sure

Mark 1:11:15

it was a cool profession or it was your only option.

Becki 1:11:21

is still a cool profession. Okay. Let me, let me

Mark 1:11:25

so how we modernize it to make it cool? Again,

Becki 1:11:28

it is a message from the industry that I think needs to, come from the top, right? Uh, I'm I'm an agriculture. We talk about feeding the world. That's our job, and I do it by teaching people how to be treated. Who can teach the younger generation about not just, production agriculture and growing the crops and, you know, fixing a tractor here and there it is about how can you get into nutrition and dietetics or, uh, food science or, Technology and robotics. And how does all that integrate to help feed the people on our planet? I think the transportation industry needs to embrace that also, and it's not just moving product from one place to another. It is a key cog in our survival. As the society, to have the products, the goods and services that we are used to having, right.

Mark 1:12:32

All, all industries. I know, like, especially yours ag education has faced all industries. There's resistance to change for sure It in ag education, it seemed, stronger than that. And it's stronger in trans in trucking too And I don't know for sure how we over come that right Other than just, just doing it, just, you know, of the things we've tried on the, the, the USU truck, a lot of the drag. Some of the drivers. I shouldn't say a lot. Some of the drivers refer to that as my truck that's Mark's truck. right Well, it got all the radar and lane keep assist right out of the gate.

Becki 1:13:23

Um,

Mark 1:13:24

now the latest thing with that truck is the electronic mirrors I have already heard from a few drivers. That they don't like him.

Becki 1:13:35

Sure. Okay.

Mark 1:13:37

And I can understand, however, this is the direction we're heading,

Becki 1:13:43

right? You are, um, there's a theory out there.

Mark 1:13:49

like conspiracy theory,

Becki 1:13:51

No. Um,

Mark 1:13:53

Aren't real.

Becki 1:13:54

do you need to look this up diffusion of innovation? You were an early adopter. So when there are new. Innovations that come out, you were the first one to do them. Okay. And then there are those people that come next and then you've got folks that are, they call them the laggards. They're the last people to adopt the new innovation, but there's a whole theory about diffusion of innovation and how that innovation through society.

Mark 1:14:22

Hmm. don't, but I, I appreciate the old stuff so much. Sure.

Becki 1:14:29

And there's, I think there's something to that too. Right?

Mark 1:14:34

wish we still had great truck stop restaurants that were open 24 hours that I wish we still had flexibility. I sometimes feel like. we're resistant to change because we're afraid. Right. And sometimes I feel like I get frowned upon a bit because I embrace it so quickly, but I just see it as it's common. Right. I mean, no matter what I do this stuff's coming and I better figure out how to make money doing it.

Becki 1:15:10

it

Mark 1:15:11

Because somebody's going to

Becki 1:15:13

if you're not.

Mark 1:15:14

first you're last, right.

Becki 1:15:18

It was that from a lightening McQueen. It

Mark 1:15:23

be. It could be from Talladega nights for all. I know Ricky, Bobby,

Becki 1:15:30

well, helping those folks that are, I'm not going to say resistant, but the question, need for change, it's helping them understand the needs. If you would have given me more prep time, I could have come at you with all kinds of, um, smart stuff to say, but.

Mark 1:15:46

Maybe we'll talk about future trucking in the next step. So maybe that'll be the next episode Thanks for tuning in to episode 23 of driver to driver is Stokes trucking podcast. if you have any comments or questions, please email me. Mark. mirk@stokestrucking.com. I'd love show ideas. I think we might do the next one future trucking.

Becki 1:16:10

It sounds like a good plan.

Mark 1:16:11

Exciting. Sorry about my pets. We'll talk to you soon.

1:16:22

Thank you for listening to driver to driver. Uh, Stokes trucking podcast. For more information on Stokes trucking, please visit our website Stokes trucking.com. You can also learn more about us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at Stokes trucking. The intro and outro music is I can't keep still. The bumper music between segments is fetch me another one, Both performed by the caffeine creek band Driver to driver is a frankfurter studios production