A Tale of Two Showers
It was a long day of driving and I just wanted to get a hot shower and some sleep. I pulled into this TA about 0200, not expecting to find a parking spot, but I decided to circle the lot once anyway. Just as I rounded the last corner of the last row, there it was… a lone spot in the corner of the back row. Perfect. I prefer parking in the back of the lot and it’s a corner, so only one truck on the driver’s side to be concerned about. As I backed in, I noticed my neighbor was a shiny Kenworth with a big sleeper. No way that truck would hit me if he or she pulled out before I left. Time for that shower. Booked it on the app, grabbed my bag and headed inside. Since when did TA remodel anything? The doors to the building were new and clean. When I entered the building, I could see new, shiny, clean floor tiles. This was a good sign. The sign hanging from the ceiling clearly marked the hallway to the showers. The hallway was well lit and there was door number 12. With a tap of the “unlock door” button in their app, the door buzzed and I entered the shower. WOW! New tilework. New sink. Extra towels that appeared to be quite new, not the typical threadbare ones I am used to getting. The fan was either very well cleaned or new and quietly kept the air circulating. There was even a “clean smell” in the air, not just a chemical odor, but a pleasant aroma. No mold or mildew smells, just clean. I haven’t seen a new shower this clean at a TA for years.
As I sat my bag down, the lights went out. Have you ever been inside a truck stop shower room without any lights? It is dark. No windows. No light from under the door. Just dark. I grabbed my phone to illuminate the room and that’s when I realized I could hear an alarm sounding from outside my shower room.
That’s when I woke up holding my phone trying to turn off the 2 AM alarm.
Then it happened like this: I tried to use their app to book a shower, but it wouldn’t connect. It just kept force closing. So I grabbed my bag and headed inside to see the cashier. The doors to enter the building were sagging to the point that it dragged the threshold and was difficult to get open, it did not close automatically either. The filthy, broken tile floors that welcomed me were about what I expected from an old Union 76 station. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, a clerk finally came from some unknown place and walked behind the counter. I booked the shower and headed for door 6. It was down several hallways and not clearly marked. The dirty stained hallway walls were an ominous sign of the shower to come. The keypad for door six didn’t work so I had to go find an attendant to open it up. Where do all the truck stop workers go in the middle of the night? All the way back to the counter to have the clerk call someone. She did call someone, but no one came. After about five minutes, she decided to get me a different shower room. Off to door 9. At least the keypad allowed me to gain entry this time. Upon opening the door, the immediate sound of a rattling fan forced the damp mildew smell through the open door. The only thing it circulated was despair. Typical TA shower. I closed the door and sat my bag on… there is nowhere to sit it except the floor (not an option) or the edge of the pedestal sink. No counters, no hooks to hang it from (but there were signs that hooks were once in the archaeological site that I uncovered). The shower dripped and the water was only kind of warm. The towel, just the one and nothing else (no washcloth and no shower mat) looked to be from the time of the Nixon administration. The lack of air conditioning had me leaving the shower sweating more than when I came in.
Only in trucking do you wake up from a dream about a spotless TA shower, walk into the real thing, and immediately wish you were still asleep.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
- Charles Dickens
See you down the road,
Greg